As patients around the world fight the terrible disease that is Breast Cancer, Researchers continue to make strides in the diagnosis and treatment of Breast Cancer. In this week’s Intentional Living we talk to an oncologist about what the future could bring.
Each year in the United States, about 245-thousand new cases of Breast Cancer are diagnosed in women, another 2,200 cases affect men. The five-year survival rate is about 90-percent. But more than 40,000 breast cancer patients die every year.
Oncologist, Dr. Ameilia Zelnak says, “The question is how do we increase what we’re doing for the patients where our current therapies are not yet effective as we would like.”
This is where research comes in, as health care professionals look to the future of diagnosing and treating breast cancer over the next several years. Zelnak says a big focus of clinical trials has been on patients that have advanced stage breast cancer. And when new drugs are successful for them, even if it’s not curative, there’s hope for a trickle down effect.
Dr. Zelnak says, “There have been a number of clinical trials that are currently ongoing looking at can we use those same drugs along with hormone therapy for early stage disease so that more women never develop metastatic disease.” But Zelnak hopes there’s another area that will get more attention and time in the future as well. She closes with, “so many of our early stage breast cancer patients have an outstanding prognosis. Much of where our focus needs to shift, is not just on treatments, but on survivorship.”