“You’ve come a long way, baby,” was a line in a popular television commercial in the 1970s.
The same could be said about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
Northport’s Barbara Conley, M.D., a medical oncologist, has seen the evolution of breast cancer treatment.
“It’s an amazing fact that 90% of breast cancer patients survive at least 10 years,” she said.
Conley earned her medical degree from Michigan State University and until 2017 was the associate director, cancer diagnosis program, division of Cancer Treatment & Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute, where she now serves as a consultant.
“I saw horrible things … professionals whose cancer grew through the skin,” she said. “They were afraid of the treatments… Now we have uncovered so much about how cancer grows and spreads, we’ve been able to develop treatment to address the anomaly.”
Conley ran the first national cancer precision medical study, working with diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies; three offices of the Food and Drug Administration; more than 1,000 clinical sites several government agencies; over 1,000 clinical sites, clinicians, and patient advocates.
“This project was a great success and gave me the experience to see a difficult, never before attempted program to completion,” she said.
According to the NIH library, the earliest descriptions of breast cancer date back to around 3500 BCE. For centuries to follow, theories by Hippocrates (460 BCE) and Galen (200 CE), attributing the cause of breast cancer to an “excess of black bile” and treatment options including the use of opium and castor oil, prevailed.
Surgical resection was introduced in the 18th century. The discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie, led to the development of radiation therapy to treat cancers.
But is wasn’t until the late ‘60s and early 1970s that chemotherapy treatment began with drugs like paclitaxel or docetaxel.
Radiation and chemotherapy treatment improved the plight of breast cancer patients. But they come with side-effects.
The advent of modern medicine led to the development of novel treatment options that include hormonal, targeted and chemotherapies.
Faulty genes are the underlying cause for about 5 to10% (5 to 10 in 100) of breast cancers. According to the NIH, in 1994 and ‘95 two genes were identifi ed, that if mutated, greatly increase an individuals chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer. These are known as BRCA1 (Breast Cancer 1) and BRCA2 (Breast Cancer 2) genes. These two genes account for approximately a fifth (20%) of familial breast cancers. Research to identify new genes that also contribute to a high risk of breast cancer or modify the risk associated with a BRCA1/2 mutation is ongoing.
A woman in the U.S. today has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer over her lifetime and a 1 in 39 chance of dying from breast cancer.
Nearly 30% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer later develop metastatic breast cancer.
U.S. men make up 1 of every 100 breast cancer diagnoses in the country.
There are about 4 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S., including women receiving breast cancer treatment.
While the percentage of women dying from breast cancer has gone down in recent decades, Black women remain more likely to die from breast cancer than women of any other racial or ethnic group.
In contrast to rising incidence, the death rate for breast cancer among women in the United States has dropped 44% from its peak in 1989 to 2022. That translates to nearly 518,000 fewer breast cancer deaths during this time compared to the number that would have occurred if the peak rate had continued.
The continuous decline in breast cancer death rates is attributed to advances in treatment and early detection.
