So much to learn about…Breast Cancer

By Debbie Kerr

Educate to Advocate then Advocate to Educate

​Did you ever think you knew a lot about something only to discover that what you knew was incorrect or incomplete? Did you ever think that something was working well only to discover that there were flaws that needed fixing? If you have, you might have learned the truth yourself or from someone else. Once you were educated, you might have felt strongly enough about it that you shared that information with others to help them avoid the same mistake. You learned, you felt strongly enough about what you learned, so that you advocated by educating others. This is how education and advocacy can become an effective cycle for creating change.

This post is the first in a series where I will present potential misinformation, the correct information, and resources and actions that you can take to educate yourself and others. You might even want to become an advocate for change.

This is the first post in a series about the cycle of education and advocacy. 

What I thought I knew

• I didn’t have to be concerned about breast cancer because I had no family history.
• I didn’t have to be concerned about breast cancer because only older people (over 50) get breast cancer.
• I didn’t have to be concerned about breast cancer because, as far as I knew, there wasn’t a lump in my breast; although, to be honest, I had never done a breast self-examination. No lump meant no cancer.
• I had no need to educate myself about a subject that had nothing to do with me.

I was so wrong. I had so much to learn.

What I learned from my own experience

• I didn’t have a family history of breast cancer, yet I was diagnosed with two types of breast cancer. In fact, I didn’t even know there was more than one type of breast cancer.
• I didn’t have to be 50 (when the breast screen program starts for women in Ontario) before I was at risk for being diagnosed with breast cancer. I was only 49 with symptoms of breast cancer when I had my first mammogram. I suspect, given my earlier incorrect beliefs, that if I had received a letter that encouraged me to have a mammogram, I probably would have set it aside and waited years before I had a mammogram.
• I didn’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. I had blood that spontaneously came from my left nipple. I knew it wasn’t normal, but it never occurred to me that I might have cancer.
• I found out I had dense breasts, although it wasn’t until much later that I found out what that meant for me. 

Even after my personal experience, I still had so much more to learn.

What I learned since having breast cancer
It’s never too late to learn more, even after having my own cancer experience. Now I am learning from various sources that are educating women and triggering change.

Dense Breasts Canada 
This organization has taught me so much about dense breasts and breast screening guidelines in Canada. Here are just a few examples of what I’ve learned:

• Having dense breasts is a double-edged sword. It increases your risk of developing breast cancer and makes it harder to detect.
• There are four categories of breast density (A, B, C, and D). Categories C and D are the two highest categories for breast density. These two categories are most likely to hide cancer on a mammogram. To increase the chance that breast cancer will be detected early, supplemental screening, like an ultrasound or MRI, is recommended.
• Some of you will have your breast density included in your mammogram results, while some of you will not be told. It depends on the province where you live. More advocacy is required so that all women are notified if they have dense breasts. Without knowing your breast density, you won’t know when to advocate for supplemental screening.  

• The current Canadian breast screening guidelines recommend that women start having mammograms in their 50s. These guidelines are based on out-dated studies. As a result of strong advocacy, existing guidelines are being re-evaluated. If the standard is changed so that you receive mammograms at age 40, cancer can be detected earlier. This means treatments can be less aggressive and lives can be saved.
• Currently, mammograms are recommended only for women up to the age of 74; however, since women are living longer and the risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, these guidelines need to change. In some provinces, you can request your own mammograms while in other provinces, like Ontario, you need a requisition from your doctor to receive a mammogram after age 74. 

Know Your Lemons 

• There are at least 12 signs of breast cancer. The “Know Your Lemons” campaign is educating women all over the world about those signs so they can identify cancer much earlier than they would have if they were only looking for a lump.
• While the current Canadian Task Force recommends that women and even doctors do not do breast examinations, Know Your Lemons has diagrams and an App to help women do breast self-examinations more effectively.  

A friend
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that men can also develop breast cancer. I learned this from a male friend who has both breast and lung cancer. Although breast cancer in men is much rarer than in women, it is possible.  Here is his blog. 

What we can do
With knowledge comes the power to make changes that will benefit not only you but the people around you. Educate yourself. Take action to trigger change. Educate others so that the cycle of education and advocacy can continue. Please visit these sites as a great way to start your cycle of knowledge and advocacy:  

• densebreastscanada.ca
• mybreastscreening.ca
• knowyourlemons.org

If you have any suggestions for future topics, please send an email to laughterandcancer@gmail.com. Why not start the education process?