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>> [music] Tonight -
>> I have absolutely no family history of cancer at all. I didn't think I was a risk
factor.
>> You never expect anything is going to happen to you.
>> An ABC27 special presentation -
>> I did everything I could not to get it, and I still got breast cancer.
>> Two stories of hope and courage.
>> I was scared. The lump was so obvious, and I just kept thinking how did I miss this
lump.
>> Penn State Hershey Breast Center presents "Hope and Courage: A Tribute to Breast Health",
brought to you by Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
>> Chuck Rhodes: Good evening. I'm Chuck Rhodes. This October is the 27th breast cancer awareness
month. While the death rate from breast cancer has continued to decrease, only 55 percent
of Pennsylvania women over the age of 40 receive annual mammograms. One in seven women will
be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Tonight, specialists from Penn State Hershey
Breast Center are in the ABC27 call center to answer your questions about breast cancer.
Just call the number on the bottom of the screen, or you can e-mail your questions during
the show to questions at abc27 dot com. Breast surgeon Dr. Jay Stanley Smith will answer
your e-mails throughout tonight's show. All calls, of course, and e-mails are confidential.
We begin tonight with Debra Pinkerton, and she's in the call center. She'll be sharing
one patient's courageous story. Let's hear it, Debra.
>> Thanks, Chuck. It was Easter morning [background talk] when a Lancaster County woman woke up
and felt something very disturbing in her breast. She immediately knew [phone ringing]
it wasn't good.
>> This is just a great place to live. [background noise] [music] I grew up here, and my husband
and I brought this place from my parents, and we spend Saturday evenings around the
fire pit.
>> The sparks keep Rick and Brenda Stauffer warm and cozy.
>> Wow. You got it going good.
>> On this cool, crisp evening, Rick and Brenda reminisce, about the many happy times and
some unforgettable sad times, too.
>> For a few months, I felt a little burning pain in my right breast, and I ignored it
because it was just little twinges here and there -
>> But on Easter morning of 2010, Brenda says the pain was unbearable.
>> I woke up to it. It was actually burning to the point where I woke up and felt this
burning pain that didn't go away. So I started feeling around, and I, I felt a lump in there,
and I went down to my husband, and I said what do you think of this.
>> She asked me to feel, and when I felt it, I thought, oh, boy. This is not good.
>> My thought was wow, how did I miss that? Because the lump wasn't little. It was a pretty
good sized lump, but it was, it was deep in. It wasn't visible.
>> What I thought, I couldn't say, but [laughs]. No. It was gut wrenching, you know, because
you knew right away I knew what it was, and she did, too.
>> Breast surgeon Dr. Rena Kass confirmed their worst fear.
>> She had a mammogram and an ultrasound that then determined that there was, in fact, a
lesion there that was correlating with what she could feel. She underwent a core biopsy,
or a minimally-invasive biopsy, where slivers of this lesion were removed, and it did show,
in fact, invasive breast cancer.
>> Well, I cried. My husband cried. We cried together. My reaction was, oh, my goodness,
I'm following in my mother's footsteps because my mother had breast cancer.
>> Brenda was 40 when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
>> My mother was 67 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She did go through
radiation, and she went through a form of chemo. It was, it was a form of pill, but
in her case, it had already gone beyond the breast and had spread. My mom was 68 years
old. I, she was too young. She was too young to die.
>> A very sad ending. Brenda did not want to repeat.
>> After the initial shock of it, then you, then, then I felt like, OK, OK. This is what
you have. This is what you're going to do. You're going to sit down and dig in and do
what you have to do.
>> We talked to Brenda about the options, the surgical options that she'd be a candidate
for, and those would be breast conserving therapy, which would be a lumpectomy followed
by radiation, getting clear margins around, nice zone of safety around the, the tumor,
or a mastectomy.
>> Brenda chose a mastectomy.
>> I had the surgery on June 1st. It was my birthday, and I thought happy birthday to
me. [laughs] I get to have surgery today.
>> At the same time, Dr. Kurtis Moyer performed a special kind of microsurgical breast reconstruction
called a free tranflap procedure.
>> The specialized procedure that I do here is taking abdominal tissue from the patient's
abdominal region, fat and skin, and move that up to the breast after the mastectomy has
been performed. The benefit of the procedure is that it's their own tissue so it feels
and looks more natural than a silicone implant.
>> She went in at ten in the morning, and then it was, like, quarter after 11 in the
evening when she came to. She goes well, that didn't take long. I said what do you mean?
I said it was 13 hours later. [laughs]
>> Brenda needed time to recover, time to heal, but she wasn't finished.
>> She needed chemotherapy because the invasive nature of the tumor, the positive nodes, and
the fact that she had this special subtype called [inaudible]. She participated in a
national clinical trial that's being conducted here at our medical center, and she got a
combination of chemotherapy, a special kind of chemotherapy plus the antibody receptor,
the antibody against her two target.
>> Two weeks after the first chemo, my hair started, you know, I could, I could put it,
and it came out, and then I just, my husband shaved my head for me.
>> I said I can't wait to shave your head, I can't wait to shave your head, then you'll
look like me, and, you know, the day of it, it was very hard to do it.
>> Chemotherapy. That was definitely the hardest time from the time of the diagnosis all the
way through the, the six chemo treatments were the worst.
>> Brenda says her family, especially her grandkids, gave her strength.
>> I always took pictures of my grandkids with me. So that got me through it.
>> Little steps of encouragement that made a huge difference on her journey.
>> I feel fortunate to be married to my best friend. I feel fortunate that my children
supported me. I had a great support system.
>> Now everything seems to be going good. You know, she's getting back to her normal
self.
>> I feel great. I, life's good.
[ Music ]
>> And life is good for Brenda. Dr. Kass says Brenda is disease free. Chuck, we'll send
it back to you in the studio.
>> Thank you, Debra. I'll tell you, that attitude, you can tell it just jumps off the screen,
that winning attitude. Joining us here now in the studio is Dr. Kurtis Moyer. Doctor,
we watched you do that procedure, and you talked about it in there. How long's that
procedure been around?
>> The particular procedure that Brenda had, microsurgical breast reconstruction, in the
form that she had it, it's been around about fifteen years. In the last ten years, it's
become more popular as more surgeons are becoming trained in this advanced procedure.
>> And there have to be pros and cons no matter what the procedure is. Talk about some of
the pros and cons, one procedure over the other as far as the patient's concerned.
>> Sure, absolutely. The pros of this particular procedure are that it's the patient's own
tissue. So it's going to feel and look more like a natural breast. In addition to this,
because I'm using abdominal tissue, women will have a reduction in their waist line,
similar to an abdominal plasty or what is often called the tummy tuck. The other pro
to that particular procedure is that there's less of a maintenance for that particular
type of procedure, and that means that over time, women don't have to worry about having
different procedures that may come down the line with implants.
>> And so the procedure's eight to ten hours long, and I'll tell you, that's, that's tough
there. What, can any of the, what are some of the cons? I mean, we talked about the pros.
What's negative about it?
>> The cons are, as you have said, it's a much longer surgery than doing implants. So
from a standpoint of whether or not a patient's able to go through with the procedure depends
on their consultation and whether or not they're a candidate for that procedure, but, again,
the benefits are it's a much longer-lasting reconstructive procedure than silicone implant.
>> Is every candidate that's had a mastectomy, are they are a candidate for this type of
reconstruction?
>> Unfortunately, not. Women who are undergoing this particular procedure, because it's a
longer procedure would need to be healthy and able to undergo an eight to ten hour long
procedure, but, again, one of the benefits of having this procedure available at the
Penn State Hershey Medical Center that I perform is, is that it gives local women a chance
to have this advanced procedure. Up until recently, this procedure was only available
in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but now I perform it at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey
Medical Center.
>> Good news. It's local.
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> Thank you for joining us tonight, doctor, and let's check in -
>> Thank you -
>> With Debra in the call center. Debra.
>> Thanks, Chuck. The phone lines are busy. If you need to get through, just try. Keep
on calling. You can also e-mail your questions to questions at abc27 dot com. Now here to
answer our first viewer question is Dr. Susann Schetter, co-director of the Breast Center.
Thanks for being here. The question is I found a lump in my breast that is very painful,
but it does not show up on an ultrasound or mammogram. Should I get a biopsy?
>> My advice to any woman who felt a lump in her breast. If a lump is new in your breast,
and that is a change for you, regardless of what someone may tell you about a mammogram
or an ultrasound, you should see a breast specialist, preferably a breast surgeon, to
have your breast examined, and they can determine whether or not a biopsy is necessary.
>> OK, thanks, Dr. Schetter , and we will have more of your questions [music] coming
up a little bit later in the show.