Andrea Barbera’s [insight into] the relationship between a mastectomy fitter and her customer offer interesting food for thought. After a diagnosis of breast cancer followed by surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, a woman’s self esteem is challenged, withered down and her emotional stability is in jeopardy. For this woman, finding a place of respite where she can heal her damaged self-esteem is of utmost importance. A warm, caring mastectomy fitter who can help her choose the right products so that she is comfortable will change her life. A diverse selection of products from immediate post-mastectomy through recovery and beyond will keep her coming back to the same environment. Offering garments that are fashionable, sexy and well-fitting will keep her as a customer forever.

Barbera notes that we live in a time where reimbursement and all its regulations require quite a challenge. Although there are many on-line businesses — mine included — it is important that women have a place to go to be fitted and a place where they can shop for items that will become an integral part of their feeling whole.

— Barbara Zarrell, RN
Chief executive officer, The Woman’s Personal Health

If you have questions of your own feel free to contact us, we would love to help out any way we can.

http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/cancer-newsline/past-episodes/surgery-offers-hope-for-lymphedema.html

http://cancerconnect.com/personal-care-breast-prosthesis/

“Minimally invasive cryotherapy opens the door for a potential new treatment for breast cancer and needs to be further tested. When used for local control and/or potential cure of breast cancer, it provided safe and effective breast conservation with minimal discomfort for a group of women who refused invasive surgery or had a local recurrence and needed additional management,” noted Peter J. Littrup, M.D., an interventional radiologist and director of imaging research and image-guided therapy for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Mich. “This is the first reported study of successfully freezing breast cancer without having to undergo surgery afterward to prove that it was completely treated,” he added.

In the 13-patient study, no localized treatment recurrences were seen for up to five years, no significant complications were noted and women were pleased with the cosmetic outcomes, noted Littrup, who is also a professor of radiology, urology and radiation oncology at Wayne State University in Detroit. Cryotherapy was applied according to well-established freezing principles, and biopsies at the margins of the cryotherapy site immediately after the procedure and at the cryotherapy site in follow-up were all negative- showing no cancer, said Littrup.

In the United States, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes and one woman will die from the disease every 13 minutes. A woman has about a 13 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, with women 50 years of age and older accounting for approximately 80 percent of all breast cancers. For these women, as well as the thousands of men diagnosed each year, breast cancer treatments can be highly effective but often require invasive treatment options such as surgery and chemotherapy. Surgery offers the best chance for a cure. Until long-term data are available, interventional treatments- such as cryotherapy, thermal ablation and laser therapy- are reserved for women who cannot have- or have refused- surgery.

In this study’s cryotherapy treatment, researchers used several needle-like cryoprobes that were evenly spaced and that were inserted through the skin to deliver extremely cold gas directly to the tumor to freeze it. This technique has been used for many years by surgeons in the operating room; however, in the last few years, the needles have become small enough to be used by interventional radiologists through a small nick in the skin, without the need for an operation. The “ice ball” that is created around the needle grows in size and destroys the frozen tumor cells. The major benefits of cryotherapy are its superb visualization of the ice treatment zone during the procedure, its low pain profile in an outpatient setting and its excellent healing with minimal scar, said Littrup. Breast imaging has markedly advanced by accurate improvements in breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allowing for excellent treatment planning of tumor size and extent within the breast, as well as showing zones of destruction thoroughly covering the tumor after cryotherapy, he noted.

A major difference between this study and all prior uses of breast cryotherapy is the confirmation of sufficient deadly temperatures when using two or more cryoprobes, said Littrup. Prior breast cryotherapy studies had “inexplicably” used only a single cryoprobe and suggested that tumors larger than 1.5 centimeters could not be adequately treated, he explained. “This is incongruent with more than 10 years of treating an entire prostate, which is approximately 5 centimeters, with more than six probes in order to generate well-defined sufficient deadly temperatures throughout the whole gland. We simply translated this concept to breast cancer in order to assure deadly temperatures well beyond all apparent tumor margins in order to generate successful use of cryotherapy in women,” said Littrup. “This emphasizes the important role of an interventional radiologist in pioneering image-guided therapy by appropriately using established treatment technology- let alone emerging ones- to deliver a sufficient treatment dose, rather than only relying on the organ-specific expertise of other subspecialized physicians,” said Littrup. “An interventional radiologist can better focus on the image-guidance similarities of nearly any treatment technology and thereby help lead the effort of improved cancer treatments for many organ sites,” added the co-author of “Cryotherapy for a Spectrum of Breast Cancer: US and CT-guidance.”

Surgeons and radiation oncologists have long tried to provide at least a 1-centimer margin of treatment surrounding all aspects of a localized breast cancer, and it was important to ensure a similar “surgical margin” of lethal temperatures beyond all tumor margins by cryotherapy in this study, said Littrup. “The well-visualized ice margin by ultrasound CT or MR is actually only the 0-degree Celsius line, or isotherm, which is not sufficiently lethal to cancer cells, but has unfortunately been confused with the actual treatment margin. We made sure that the lethal isotherm of approximately -30 degrees Celsius extended beyond all tumor margins,” said Littrup.

“With recent developments of powerful new cryotechnology, multiple directions for breast cryotherapy can be pursued, including translating the current, somewhat challenging, procedure done with ultrasound and/or CT guidance to a more consistent and reproducible MR-guided approach,” said Littrup. Cryotechnology promises to be more MR-compatible and would also allow accurate targeting of more difficult-to-see breast tumors. More importantly, larger studies in multiple centers needs to be done, following these basic cryobiology principles of sufficient lethal temperatures generated by multiple cryoprobes spaced evenly throughout a breast cancer region, he added.

SOURCE:

 Society of Interventional Radiology’s 35th Annual Scientific Meeting, March 16, 2010, Tampa, Fla.

Call if you have more questions, concerns, or just want to chat!

http://www.womanspersonalhealth.com/breast-forms/enhancers

 However, most of the time the enhancers look funny in the bra, do not completely cover the breast, and do not give the look you want.  If there is 1/3 to 1/2 of space in the cup, a partial breast form or a full form is needed. 

http://www.womanspersonalhealth.com/breast-forms/partial-breast-forms

 The partials are great, as they are silicone shells, and will fit over the entire breast.  The clincher here is finding the right size.  Trial and error.  Several of the women I spoke to last week needed a full form – they had very little breast tissue, or were a large band size – over 42 with small breasts – around a AA, and  they felt like they looked silly.  I recommended a few different polyfill forms to try. 

http://www.womanspersonalhealth.com/breast-forms/casual/leisure-forms

These are inexpensive, soft, and look great.  All the bras we have are pocketed, so whether you are using an enhancer, or a full form, they will fit beautifully into the bras.   Call or write for more information on how to fit.

The day a woman learns she has breast cancer is one of the most difficult moments in her life

The day I found out about breast cancer: Devastating. I was really like a deer in the headlights,” said Tamar Rosenthal, a breast cancer survivor. “My heart wouldn’t beat right. … I was having pain in my chest all day. It was like, ‘Why me? Why is this happening?’”

Dr. Susan Love is trying to answer such questions. Along with the Avon Foundation, she has launched the “Army of Women” Web site in hopes of gathering the largest pool of women in history for breast cancer research.

The organization’s goal is to build a database of one million women for breast cancer research. So far, 30,000 have signed up.

“We need all types of women. We need all types of ethnicities,” said Love, president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. “We need all ages, because if we’re going to figure this out, we need to represent everybody that might get breast cancer.”

Now, there are 3 important studies that need your help. 

A Seattle-based study to improve wellness for breast cancer survivors! The purpose of this study is to determine if a classroom-based, mind-body imagery program can help to improve the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. 10 more women and men are needed for this study.    Yes, Sign Me Up   Stress, Sleep, and Breast Cancer… What’s the Connection? The purpose of this study is to learn about the relationships between psychological factors such as stress, quality of sleep, hormones, immunity, and cancer progression.   50 more women are needed for this study.    Yes, Sign Me Up   Ohio Survivors…come on out for the Yoga Study! Breast cancer survivors can have a lot of post-treatment problems, such as fatigue, depression, and a decrease in physical function. It is possible that physical activities, like yoga, could help ease these symptoms. This is a study about how yoga affects fatigue, immune function, and mood of women treated for breast cancer. 170 more women are needed for this study. Yes, Sign Me Up

Below is an example of how to measure to get a good fit.  Although some formulas say to add 4″ to the measurement you get underneath your bra band – I think you should start with adding 2″, and then determine how tight or loose you want your bra to be.  Remember, as you go up in band size, the cup will get a bit bigger.  Sometimes to compensate for that, an extender will be the perfect solution.  

How to measure and fit a bra:

Step 1, Measure for Band Size:

If the measurement is even, add 4″
if the measurement is odd, add 5″

Step 2, Measure for Cup Size:

Standing straight, with your arms at your side, measure at the fullest part of your bust (while wearing a non-padded bra) making sure the measuring tape is parallel with the ground and not binding. Round all fractional measurements to the nearest whole number.

Step 3, Calculate Your Bra Size:

Subtract your band measurement (step 1) from your cup measurement (step 2). Generally, for each inch in difference, the cup goes up by one size. Example: Step 1: 34″ under measurement +4″ = 38″ band Step 2: 40″ over measurement Step 3: 40″ – 38″ = 2″ or Cup “B” Your size would be 38B Important Note: this measuring system tends to become less accurate as the cup sizes go above a D. Additionally, some manufacturers name larger cup sizes differently.  Difference Standard Cup Size 0″-1/2″ (1.3 cm) AA 1/2″- 1″ (2.6 cm) A 2″ (5.1 cm) B 3″ (7.6 cm) C 4″ (10.2 cm) D 5″ (12.7 cm)  DD or E 6″ (15.2 cm) DDD or F 7″ (17.8 cm) G 8″ (20.3 cm) H 9″ (22.9 cm) I 10″ (25.4 cm) J

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