To find a doctor, call 800-667-5356 or click below:

Find a Doctor

Request an Appointment

left banner
right banner
Smaller Larger
  • Triple Negative Breast Cancer

    Posted 6/12/2013 by hhill
      As many of you know, "triple negative" is a relatively new term used to describe breast cancers that are estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative, and her2 negative. For treatments, this means that neither the hormonal/anti-estrogen treatments or herceptin are useful. Often, triple negative breast cancers are grade III and believed to be of an aggressive nature. The "good" news about this is that they are particularly sensitive to chemotherapy as all chemo drugs attack fast growing cells. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Review of 2012 Research

    Posted 6/11/2013 by hhill
      Think of this as a companion piece to yesterday's entry about the basic biology of breast cancer. This is an interview with Dr Eric Winer and Dr Shom Goal about recent research and directions as we move further into 2013. Frankly, nothing in this piece is brand new information, but it is a very nice summary and captures the many areas of interest. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Breast Cancer Primer

    Posted 6/10/2013 by hhill
      This interview with Larry Norton, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering, published in MedScape, is an excellent overview of breast cancer. If you have ever wondered about the basics of breast cancer biology and treatment, spending a few minutes with Dr Norton will be time well spent. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Scalp Cooling and Hair Loss

    Posted 5/31/2013 by hhill
      There is no need to go into the usual diatribe about hair loss. We all know how horrible and distressing and stressful it is....and that we somehow settle into baldness and cope. Twenty or twenty five years ago there was a brief period when an ice cap was popular and recommended as a way to reduce hair loss. The idea was that a woman wore it (looked kind of like a big shower cap, filled with ice) during a chemo infusion. In theory, the cold constrcited the blood vessels in the scalp, reducing the flow of blood to that area, and thereby reduced the damage and subsequent hair loss. There were a few problems: it gave people horrible headaches, there was some concern about the wisdom of the theory, and it didn't work. Read more... Comments (0)
  • Targeted Therapies and Breast Cancer

    Posted 5/24/2013 by hhill
      All of us have heard the buzz around "targeted therapies", and most of it is good. The simplistic definition is that these are molecular agents that are designed to attack a particular part of a breast (or other) cancer cell. Rather than trying to kill the whole cell all at once, as does chemotherapy, a targeted therapy uses stealth to depower or kill or otherwise ruin a single tiny part that then makes the whole cell inoperable--or dead. Think of tamoxifen (perhaps the first targeted therapy although it wasn't called that) and ER positive breast cancers or, more recently, herceptin and her2 positive ones. Read more... Comments (0)
View more

Contact Information

Cancer Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
617-667-1900

Categories

Archive

Syndication

Tagcloud

Recent comments

About the Blogger

Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW, OSW-C is the Manager of Oncology Social Work at BIDMC. For more than thirty years, her daily work at BIDMC has been primarily focused on supporting women with breast cancer. A nationally known writer and speaker, she was the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's first Hatcher Survivorship Professor. In 1993, and again in 2005, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through the standard treatments of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. These experiences have given her great credibility with her patients and transformed her life's work to her life. Ms. Schnipper lives gratefully with her husband in an ancient farmhouse outside of Boston and spends as much time as possible in a water front cottage on Mt Desert Island. Between them, they have five adult children and seven grandchildren; she claims biological responsibility for two and three of them.