In a recent article she wrote that was published on medcitynews.com, Anjali urged readers that it’s time for the medical community to “increase access to lifesaving screening, decrease anxiety surrounding screening and incorporate the principles of precision medicine into our mammography guidelines.” But how could this occur? Anjali suggested revolutionizing current breast imaging services with emerging AI technologies. “We should use AI [artificial intelligence] to develop recommendations for breast cancer screening protocols based on quantified risk, factoring in family history, ethnicity, genetics, and density, et al. and then support the use of powerful new imaging AI technologies for those cases that demand a deeper look,” Anjali wrote in the article. “For example, several companies […] have significantly improved AI-driven mark and score offerings that effectively serve as a second reader to identify suspicious areas in both screening and prior examinations. There are several software devices that use AI to generate density rankings for breast tissue. And others are working on linking the image data to multiple risk factors. These powerful AI technologies taken together are the solution. That’s targeted, precision medicine […] If we make this our approach, the age-old debate about one-size-fits-all screening age will one day be seen as the dark ages.”4
The term “triple-negative breast cancer” refers to the fact that the cancer cells don’t have estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER or PR) and don’t make any or too much of the protein called HER2. (The cells test "negative" on all three tests.) This aggressive form of breast cancer accounts for roughly 10-15% of all breast cancers and tends to be more common in women under the age of 40 or who have a BRCA1 mutation. “That’s what made my case unique,” Suze explained. “I was diagnosed at 49; clearly not within that typical age range.” While this came as a shock to Suze and her family, they were not unfamiliar with a breast cancer diagnosis. Her mother, Olga Morales, was diagnosed with breast cancer … twice. And she survived, twice. “We believed that my mom’s cancer was environmental because when she was a little girl, she and all of her siblings would run behind a DDT truck that regularly
drove down their street for fun,” Suze shared. “They were poor growing up in Taylor, Texas, and she was one of 14 kids. All of my aunts and uncles — every single one of her siblings — or their offspring ended up with some form of cancer.” Knowing this family history and watching their mother undergo breast cancer treatment prompted Suze and her sister, Meredith Knobler Kennedy, to take the BRCA gene test for breast cancer. This test looks for DNA changes in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that increase the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer using samples of blood or saliva. It identifies the mutations that increase the risk of these cancers and allows individuals to take the required steps to reduce their risk. Surprisingly (in hindsight), both sisters’ BRCA tests came back negative. Neither were carriers of the cancer gene, and neither was their mother. But they remained on high alert for any warning signs.
Susan “Suze” Knobler (Eta
Beta-CSU San Bernardino) agrees with Anjali that starting your preventative care for breast cancer detection early is key. And she would know. Suze is a triple negative breast cancer survivor.
According to the American Cancer Society, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of invasive breast cancer that differs from other types of invasive breast cancer as it tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options and tends to have a worse prognosis, meaning a lower survival rate.
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