According to the American Cancer Society, \more women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer every year than with any other cancer except skin cancer.""
The American Medical Association estimates that 211,300 new cases will be diagnosed this year. To help reduce the odds, the medical community has designated October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, setting out on a public information campaign to educate women on how to prevent, detect and treat the disease.
According to Diane Lauver, professor in the School of Nursing ""primary prevention"" is the most important way to avert breast cancer. For college-aged women, she stressed improving dietary habits. Minimizing alcohol intake to no more than seven to nine alcoholic drinks per week, ideally having no more than one drink per 24 hours, is one way of decreasing the risk of developing breast cancer.
Lauver also emphasized eating more fresh fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, vitamins A, C and E and minimizing intake of animal fats compared to plant based oils. Since foods rich in antioxidants help boost the immune system, Lauver said when women eat more of such foods, ""if there is a process where a cell is starting to become cancerous, the immune system could keep it in check.""
If a woman does develop breast cancer, early detection is crucial to combating the disease; AMA statistics show a 97 percent five-year survival rate for ""localized breast cancer"" among patients who were able to detect the disease early.
Lauver adds a caveat to this claim, stating ""there is not strong data that say women who do breast-self exams live longer,"" but it is still important for women to perform them ""systematically, with firm to moderate pressure ... for the purpose of knowing their bodies."" This way, women know what is and is not normal and could help prevent misdiagnosis.
""Breast cancer diagnosis can be done in a number of ways. It's very often done through a mammogram, then if [doctors] see something suspicious, they do a biopsy,"" said Olvi Mangasarian, UW-Madison professor emeritus of computer science.
Mammograms are not routinely recommended for women in their twenties. This is because mammograms measure the density of breast tissue, which is greater in women who are menstruating.
""The contrast [between tissue density] is better for women after age 50 [when menopause generally begins],"" Lauver said.
According to Mangasarian, mammograms are approximately 85 percent effective at detecting cancerous tumors, with biopsy being the next step to determine whether a tumor is malignant.
XCyt is a computer program used with a fine needle aspirate procedure which examines different features among cell nuclei to determine which cells could be malignant and which could be benign. In conjunction with former UW Oncological Surgeon W.H. Wohlberg and former UW Ph.D. student Nick Street, Mangasarian developed XCyt in the mid-nineties.
The fine needle aspirate procedure, which Mangasarian dubs as ""more accurate and non-invasive"" than a traditional biopsy, involves using a needle to extract a small sample of breast tissue from a tumor. Cells of this sample are then examined microscopically to determine the maximum area of one of the cell nucleus, the variation of the texture of the nuclei and the shape of the nuclei.
Using XCyt, doctors are able to view a three-dimensional graph to plot the variation among the nuclei and then draw a plane to divide malignant and benign cells. Mangasarian says that this procedure yields an accuracy rate of 97 percent, and is ""a choice a patient has"" when thought to potentially have breast cancer.
Primary prevention and early detection both reduce a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. This risk increases with age, but being aware at a young age is still important.
On a reassuring note, Lauver stated, ""In your twenties, know that when you go in, the odds are in your favor that the results will be benign.\
