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>>>Dr. Margileth: One of the major advances over the past 5 or 10 years in breast cancer
has been trying to take the patient to the operating room, as few times as possible.
One of the things that is often done now is when women choose to have a unilateral or
a bilateral mastectomy, is to have the reconstruction at the same time as the mastectomy rather
than delaying reconstruction and therefore, needing more surgical procedures.
A common reconstruction that is done before bilateral mastectomy is at the time of mastectomy,
to place bilateral tissue expanders. The expanders can be expanded with saline by the plastic
surgeon on every two to three week basis during any of the chemotherapies.
The next question is, “When might one be able to take out the tissue expanders when
the expansion has been completed and put in the permanent implants?” Most plastic surgeons
would prefer to wait until the heavy part of the chemotherapy is completed such that
they do not have to worry about things like anemia or low platelet count, which might
lead to bleeding or especially low white count that might lead to infection.
In the case of Herceptin, it basically has no marrow toxicity. So some of the regimens
that contain Herceptin will contain Herceptin plus the chemotherapy drugs such as Taxotere
or Carboplatin in the beginning, but after four to five months, oftentimes the heavy
chemotherapy is completed and then a woman goes on to complete one year of Herceptin.
During that completion of one year of Herceptin, there is no marrow toxicity from the Herceptin
and therefore any reconstruction that needed to be completed can be done while the patient
is on Herceptin and therefore not need to wait until the year of Herceptin has been
completed.
Hi, I am Dr. Jay Harness and I want to share with you an important information that I believe
that every newly diagnosed patient with breast cancer needs to know.
Susan Denver: “I am a breast cancer survivor.”
Katherine Stockton: “I am a breast cancer survivor.”
Coree: “I am a breast cancer survivor…”
Susan Denver: “…and I want every woman to know…”
Katherine Stockton: “…about personalized breast cancer treatment…”
Susan Denver: “…and the Genomic Test.”
Coree: “A test that helps guide a woman and her doctor…”
Katherine Stockton: “…to the best treatment options for her.”
Susan Denver: “Pass it on!”