By Farah Dosani -
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women behind skin cancer. It’s estimated that one in nearly every eight women will develop it in her lifetime.
However, research reveals that routine mammograms can decrease the death rate by nearly a third.
Dr. Hatem Soliman is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at The Center for Women’s Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. He tells WGCU’s Gulf Coast Live host Valarie Edwards about the latest treatments available and why he entered the field.
Breast cancer is estimated to affect 1 out of nearly 8 American women in their lifetime. (GE Healthcare / Flikr)
You treat women in all stages of breast cancer. Are there any advances in detecting breast cancer?
Yes. We understand that the biology of these tumors varies. It used to be considered ‘breast cancer is breast cancer.’ Obviously now we understand that the biology influences a lot of aspects of the natural history of the disease…. Mammography is still considered the gold standard, tried and true approach for widespread screening. But they have attempted to implement new technology so where they use nuclear imaging techniques with specific compounds that can essentially light up where a tumor is in attempts to try to enhance the sensitivity of the image – picking up early tumors. We have [also] incorporated the use of MRI in certain high-risk women and certain subsets, where it can be used to detect smaller tumors.
One of the main projects I’m working on is using markers in the blood or serum to try to detect cancers even before they’re radiologically evident.
How is that going? That sounds like it would have enormous potential.
It does when you consider the number of women that are screened annually in the United States. The market for new techniques that are relatively noninvasive and also don’t involve additional radiation – because that’s a frequent concern…. I think it would have the potential for dramatically enhancing our ability to pick up on these tumors in an earlier stage and contribute to much better outcomes.
Why did you get involved with breast cancer and genetics research?
My mother is actually a breast cancer patient. Fortunately, she had her’s caught at a very early stage. She was treated with a mastectomy and she’s doing well. It touches everybody’s lives. You definitely don’t escape that in the sense that most people will know a woman who has been touched by breast cancer…. For me, it’s both a personal and intellectual challenge to treat breast cancer.
To hear the full interview, click here.
This reporter can be reached at fdosani@wgcu.org.
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