Contact:Renatt BrodskyMount Sinai Press Office212 241-9200
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month Mount Sinai Experts Offer Tips on Early Detection, Screening, Understanding Risk and Personalized Treatment Options Newswise — (New York – September 23rd, 2016) – One in eight women in the United States has a chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life and an estimated 230,000 women will develop breast cancer this year. However, nearly 90 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survive for at least five years, which is why early detection, screening, and personalized treatments are key when it comes to saving lives.
Mount Sinai experts are available during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month to offer tips on early detection, screening, and new treatments. Patients are also available for interview.
Experts Available for Interview• Susan K. Boolbol, MD, Chief of Breast Surgery, Mount Sinai Beth Israel • Paula Klein, MD, Medical Director, Breast Cancer Clinical Trials, Mount Sinai Beth Israel• Laurie Margolies, MD, FACR, Director of Breast Imaging, Dubin Breast Center, The Mount Sinai Hospital• Charles L. Shapiro, MD, Co-Director, Dubin Breast Center and Director of Translational Breast Cancer Research, The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai
Tips for Breast Cancer Prevention • Limit alcohol and don’t smoke. The more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk of developing breast cancer. Limit yourself to no more than one drink a day. Some studies link smoking to increase risks of developing breast cancer.• Control your weight. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of breast cancer. This is especially true if obesity occurs later in life, particularly after menopause.• Be physically active. Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight, which, in turn, helps prevent breast cancer. The recommended activity is 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity weekly.• Limit dose and duration of hormone therapy. Combination hormone therapy that contain both estrogen and progesterone and are given to women after menopause should be avoided.
Understanding Risk and Options • Know Your Genes & Family History: Five to 10 percent of breast cancers are linked to gene mutations (commonly in BRCA1 & BRCA2) and 15 percent of women who get breast cancer have a family member with the disease. • More Treatment Isn’t Always Better: The average breast cancer patient who has a bilateral mastectomy will have no better survival than the average patient who spares the healthy breast by choosing lumpectomy plus radiation.• Don’t overestimate risk: When a woman has breast cancer on one side, breast cancer can spread to other parts of the body, but only very rarely does it spread to the other breast.
New Treatment Available For Hair LossMount Sinai Health System (MSHS) will soon offer the DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was recently cleared by the FDA to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer in three of its cancer center locations. The system will be available at The Dubin Breast Center, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Cancer Center West and Mount Sinai Cancer Center West. The DigniCap system is the first and only scalp-cooling device to complete FDA clinical trials in the United States, where 7 out of 10 patients with early-stage breast cancer kept at least 50 percent of their hair.
About the Mount Sinai Health SystemThe Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services—from community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.
The System includes approximately 7,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is in the “Honor Roll” of best hospitals in America, ranked No. 15 nationally in the 2016-2017 “Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report. The Mount Sinai Hospital is also ranked as one of the nation’s top 20 hospitals in Geriatrics, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery, and Ear, Nose & Throat, and is in the top 50 in four other specialties. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 10 nationally for Ophthalmology, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally. Mount Sinai’s Kravis Children’s Hospital is ranked in seven out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report in "Best Children's Hospitals."
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