‘Not Enough to Say Breast Cancer’ When Discussing Diagnoses, Expert Says

As more is understood about the subtypes of breast cancer and therapies to target them, an expert urged patients to learn more about their specific type of breast cancer through biomarker testing.

CURE® spoke with Dr. Shannon Puhalla, who recently moderated the CURE® Educated Patient® Updates in Metastatic Breast Cancer event in Pittsburgh. She discussed how patients can discover more about their disease as a way to educate themselves and their families about the specific type of breast cancer they have. She explained how patients can find this information through biomarker testing, and through those results, discussions can be had about treatment options.

Puhalla is an oncologist at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, senior associate medical director of oncology at the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Transcript:

I actually talked about this yesterday with a patient — it's not enough to say breast cancer, and really it's not enough to say metastatic breast cancer. It's very important to have an understanding about your specific type. Because when you're running into people in the supermarket or somebody that you see at church, and you're talking about it, it may sound completely different, and it may be because it is a completely different disease.

So, I think having a basic understanding about estrogen receptor status, about HER2 status, but then also have an understanding about some of these other genomic markers. So I think really empowering patients to speak with their physicians to understand: What exact type of breast cancer do I have? Have I had biomarker testing? Have I had genomic testing? What do those results show? And I do think that many patients are increasingly savvy and increasingly educated about these different things that help to determine their tumor and what their treatment options may be.

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