tagged w/ mastectomy
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January 21st, 2011
07:08 PM ET
Mastectomy for a preschooler
Aleisha Hunter is not your average 4-year-old. In fact, she's the youngest breast cancer survivor in Canada.
Not exactly the news her mother Melanie was expecting when she noticed a small lump in her daughter's right breast while bathing her when she was 2. Finally after trying to figure out what was causing Aleisha so much pain, at the age of 3, doctors diagnosed juvenile breast carcinoma, a very rare form of cancer.
"Certainly breast cancer has been reported in children and in adolescents, but it's very rare in prepubrescent girls," says Dr. Thomas Olson, medical director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service in Atlanta. Fewer than 5 percent of invasive breast cancers occur in women under age 40, according to The National Institute for Health. About 12.2 percent of women born today will get a breast cancer diagnosis at some time in their lives, according to The National Cancer Institute.
"There are many adult woman who have been tested and know that they carry a breast cancer gene mutation. I think it's important for them to realize that there is no evidence to support the risk of breast cancer in childhood for their daughters," says Dr. Sharon Plon, chief of Texas Children's Cancer Center Genetics Clinic.
Aleisha's physician, Dr. Nancy Down the deputy chief of surgery at North York General Hospital, decided on a radical double mastectomy for the 3- year-old because the tumor had grown quite large she told NBC. She didn't treat Aleisha with chemotherapy or radiation. "Whenever you have a rare case you go with a logical treatment. First you know you need surgery. The question is whether chemotherapy will add to that therapy, but you probably should not give chemotherapy unless you really think it will help," says Olson a pediatric oncologist.
Downs told NBC the advantage to this rare type of cancer it's slow growing, it doesn't spread as aggressively as other types and the prognosis is usually very good. She says Aleisha will have to get reconstructive surgery on her breast once she hits puberty. "If parents are suspicious of something unusual...you have to be your child's best advocate and it's important to follow-up if you are concerned about something in your child that you haven't seen resolved," says Plon.
In November Aleisha was honored as the 2010 Ambassador for Random Act of Kindness (RAK) Day in Cambridge and North Dumfries in Canada where she is from. The day encourages people to "pay it forward" and pay tribute to those who do kindnesses on that day and all yearlong.
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http://www.thesurvivorsclub.org/news-and-articles/aleisha-hunter-survives-breast-cancer-diagnosed-at-age-2-800344612January 21st, 2011
07:08 PM ET
Mastectomy for a preschooler
Aleisha Hunter is... more
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A personal trainer is suing Nyack Hospital and the doctors who performed a radical mastectomy on him even though he never had cancer.
Scott Aprile, 28, received the devastating diagnosis of breast cancer last December and underwent surgery in January - only to be told about two weeks later that it was a horrible mixup.A personal trainer is suing Nyack Hospital and the doctors who performed a radical... more
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Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer — the really long view. Speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America" in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the "Samantha Who?" star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She'll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.
"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. "I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."
The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.
Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."
The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, she said.
"Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that's — it's all part of healing, and anyone who's going through it out there, it's OK to cry. It's OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."
The Emmy-nominated "Samantha Who?" star has kept her sense of humor intact.
"I've laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, `I have to get out there and make this a positive.'"
Applegate's cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she's starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.
Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
She has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show "Samantha Who?", in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.
Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer —... more
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