Aspirus Grand View hosts roundtable discussion

By KELSEY HANSEN

news@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood - For breast cancer awareness month, a community roundtable was hosted Wednesday night at the Aspirus Grand View Hospital.

Nearly 30 people attended the dinner, presentation and discussion, all free to the public.

Doctors Donna Cataldo, Enrico Braucher and Ather Mehboob spoke to the group about understanding breast cancer, detection, the surgical process and treatment options.

Roughly 230,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the U.S. and men get breast cancer, as well, but only one in every 100 are diagnosed.

And genetics and family history of breast cancer is a small number of those diagnosed, resulting in 97 percent who do not have a family history of it.

But there are 2.9 million survivors of breast cancer today in the U.S., an encouraging statistic.

Dr. Cataldo shared with the group the "tool box" for early detection and diagnosis, with self-examinations as the number one step.

"As you all know, October is breast cancer awareness month and that means I am going to preach to you to do self-breast exams and mammograms," Dr. Cataldo said at the start of the presentation.

"Self-breast examinations should always be number one. It sounds weird, but nobody knows your breasts better than you. You do it every month and you know your body best," he said.

The other tools for diagnoses include mammograms, breast ultrasounds, MRIs and, finally, biopsy.

Dr. Brauchertalked about the surgical process and procedures once one is diagnosed with cancer, which include lumpectomies, mastectomies and reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy.

Dr. Mehboob discussed anatomy of the breast and non-cancerous conditions, including fibrocystic changes, cysts, infections and trauma. He also talked about the signs and symptoms, including a lump, bleeding/discharge and a change in size or color, as well as the causes of breast cancer - cells growing abnormally and cells dividing more rapidly than healthy cells.

Also discussed were the stages of breast cancer, ranging from zero to four with 70-80 percent diagnosed with stage 1.

Additional treatments to surgery can include radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.

The presentation was extremely informative and the open forum style allowed for a comfortable space for attendees to ask questions and gain further understanding.

All attendees received camouflage pink bags with a water bottle, bracelet and several other items and a drawing for a gift basket was held at the end of the presentation.