plus 4, John Kerry's Wife Teresa Heinz Reveals Breast Cancer Battle - Daily Oklahoman |
- John Kerry's Wife Teresa Heinz Reveals Breast Cancer Battle - Daily Oklahoman
- Heinz Kerry says she has breast cancer - Boston Globe
- Alaina Reed Hall - 'Sesame Street' Actress (VIDEO) Dies Of Breast ... - Post Chronicle
- Teresa Heinz says she's being treated for breast cancer - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Elevated-Risk Women Refuse MRI Breast Cancer Screening - Science Daily
| John Kerry's Wife Teresa Heinz Reveals Breast Cancer Battle - Daily Oklahoman Posted: 23 Dec 2009 05:39 PM PST Heinz wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial titled "Get that Mammogram," "I was diagnosed and treated for stage one cancer (two different types) in both breasts. The cancer was detected at an early stage thanks to a mammogram and the work of a remarkable physician who insisted on investigating beyond what the mammogram could show. I have had two operations and my prognosis for a full recovery is good." Heinz, 71, urges women to make regular mammograms a priority and said that her illness has "reminded me to slow down, cherish family and friends, and deepen my sense of life as a gift to be unwrapped each day with newfound joy and hope." Related stories: A New Leo & Cate: Countdown to the Election! Stars Rock the Vote!Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Heinz Kerry says she has breast cancer - Boston Globe Posted: 23 Dec 2009 12:46 PM PST Her surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital was the one she recommended to Elizabeth Edwards, who found out she had breast cancer just as her husband, former Senator John Edwards, was concluding his stint as Kerry's vice presidential running mate in the 2004 elections. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Alaina Reed Hall - 'Sesame Street' Actress (VIDEO) Dies Of Breast ... - Post Chronicle Posted: 22 Dec 2009 08:18 PM PST Alaina Reed Hall, the actress who played Olivia on Television's "Sesame Street," has died of breast cancer in Los Angeles, her family said. She was 63. Alaina Reed Hall's December 17 death was reported Monday by WHIO Radio in Springfield, Ohio. The popular stage actress and Ohio native appeared on "Sesame Street" from to 1976 to 1988. She also had recurring roles on "227," "Cleghorne," "Ally McBeal" and "ER." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Teresa Heinz says she's being treated for breast cancer - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Posted: 23 Dec 2009 09:57 PM PST BOSTON -- Teresa Heinz says she is being treated for breast cancer discovered through mammography and argues that younger women should continue undergoing the tests despite a federal panel's recent recommendation to reduce their frequency. The 71-year-old wife of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, told The Associated Press that the cost of mammography is far lower than the physical and personal tolls women ages 40 to 60 face if their cancer goes undetected early and they later have to be treated with aggressive chemotherapy. "Chemotherapy is serious. It also costs a lot of money. It's very painful. And it's very destructive of people's -- most people's -- lives for a while, anyway. So why put people through that instead of just having a test that's done, and it's done?" Ms. Heinz told the AP during an interview this week. "So that's why I was so upset about that decision of this panel." She recalled nurses in a hospital where she was receiving a magnetic resonance imaging procedure, or MRI, being "so livid" when they heard the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend last month that women start receiving mammograms at age 50, rather than the long-standing practice of 40. "They said, 'We've taken all these years to teach women to do preventive mammograms, and now look at this,' " Ms. Heinz said. President Obama's administration later backed off the recommendation amid criticism from many medical and women's groups. It said the government's policies "remain unchanged." Sen. Kerry helped launch then-Sen. Obama on the national political stage by giving the then-Illinois senator the keynote speaking role at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Ms. Heinz -- the widow of Republican Sen. John Heinz, heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune -- said she found out in late September that she had cancer in her left breast after having her annual mammogram. In early October, she underwent lumpectomies on both breasts at a Washington hospital after doctors also discovered what they thought was a benign growth on her right breast. That diagnosis was initially confirmed in postoperative pathology, but two other doctors later found it to be malignant. In November, Ms. Heinz had another pair of lumpectomies performed at Massachusetts General Hospital. Doctors also inserted titanium clips in the tissue of both breasts during the operations, and next month she will receive five days of targeted radiation aimed at improving her odds of a successful treatment to 95 percent. Ms. Heinz said she is undecided about follow-up medicinal treatments that could raise her survival odds to 99 percent, given her age and the potential side effects. Her surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital was the one she recommended to Elizabeth Edwards, who found out she had breast cancer just as her husband, former Sen. John Edwards, of North Carolina, was concluding his stint as Sen. Kerry's vice presidential running mate. Ms. Heinz said she has not spoken with Elizabeth Edwards about her own cancer bout. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Elevated-Risk Women Refuse MRI Breast Cancer Screening - Science Daily Posted: 22 Dec 2009 07:32 AM PST ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2009) — In a new study published in the January issue of Radiology, 42 percent of women eligible for breast cancer screening with MRI declined to undergo the procedure. "Given that MRI is promoted as a very sensitive test to identify early breast cancer, we were surprised that barely half of women at increased risk for breast cancer would undergo MRI even when offered at no cost," said Wendie A. Berg, M.D., Ph.D., breast imaging specialist at American Radiology Services, Johns Hopkins -- Green Spring Station in Lutherville, Md. "This suggests the need for alternative methods, such as ultrasound, to help screen women at increased risk for breast cancer." Some groups of women who are at high risk for breast cancer need to begin screening at a younger age, because they often develop cancer earlier than women at average risk. However, women below age 50 are more likely to have dense breast tissue, which can limit the effectiveness of mammography as a screening tool. Multicenter trials have shown that MRI enables radiologists to accurately identify tumors missed by mammography and ultrasound. The American Cancer Society recommends that some groups of women with a high risk of developing breast cancer should be screened with MRI in addition to their yearly mammogram beginning at age 30. Two factors known to reduce patient acceptance of breast MRI include claustrophobia and the requirement of an intravenous contrast agent. Open MRI causes less anxiety and claustrophobia than closed MRI, but its lower field strength does not allow optimal breast imaging. As part of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) 6666 trial, Dr. Berg and colleagues set out to gauge patient acceptance of MRI as a breast screening tool. For the MRI study, 1,215 eligible women at intermediate or high risk for breast cancer enrolled in the ACRIN 6666 trial were offered a contrast-enhanced screening MRI exam. Of those women, only 703 (57.9 percent) agreed to the exam and only 51.6 percent completed the exam per protocol. The chief reason given for nonparticipation was claustrophobia. One-quarter of the women who refused the exam, or 130 out of 512, cited claustrophobia as the reason. Ninety-three (18 percent) cited time constraints, and 62 (12 percent) cited financial concerns involving insurance. Other reasons for refusal included absence of indication for the exam, lack of interest, medical inability to tolerate MRI, reluctance to receive intravenous injection, fear of further testing or biopsy, MRI scheduling, distance and contrast agent allergies. Among the 703 who initially agreed to participate, 55 did not undergo the exam for various reasons, including withdrawal of consent, scheduling problems and missed appointments. An additional 21 patients did not complete the exam, had unreadable results or did not meet the protocol deadline. Ultimately, only 627 or 51.6 percent of the eligible women completed a screening MRI. Participation was higher among women with very high lifetime risk of cancer than among women with intermediate risk. For some women, particularly those at intermediate risk, such as women with extremely dense tissue and many women with a personal history of breast cancer, supplemental screening with breast ultrasound in addition to mammography may represent a viable alternative to screening MRI. "Screening with ultrasound helps to show small invasive cancers not seen on mammography and can be used to supplement mammography in high-risk women who cannot undergo MRI screening," Dr. Berg said. "Women who are at increased risk due to intermediate family history or dense breast tissue but do not meet the recommended risk level for MRI can also consider screening with ultrasound in addition to mammography." ### "Reasons Women at Elevated Risk of Breast Cancer Refuse Screening Breast MRI: ACRIN 6666." Collaborating with Dr. Berg were Jeffrey D. Blume, Ph.D., Amanda Adams, M.P.H., Roberta A. Jong, M.D., Richard G. Barr, M.D., Daniel E. Lehrer, M.D., Etta D. Pisano, M.D., W. Phil Evans, III, M.D., Mary Mahoney, M.D., Linda Hovanessian Larsen, M.D., Glenna Gabrielli, and Ellen B. Mendelson, M.D. The study is supported by grants from The Avon Foundation and the National Cancer Institute. Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/) RSNA is an association of more than 44,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to excellence in patient care through education and research. (RSNA.org) For patient-friendly information on MRI screening for breast cancer, visit RadiologyInfo.org. Story Source: Adapted from materials provided by Radiological Society of North America, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Journal Reference:
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