health & wellness
Know Your Family History
"Breast cancer hero" urges Jewish
women to look at their genes.
Robin Schwartz
JN Contributing Writer
inimally Invasive Surgery:
A Respectful Way to Preserve Life
When taking the Hippocratic Oath,
physicians pledge to be respectful of their
patients and refrain from doing anything
harmful. In Judaism, we are told that we
are created in G-d's image, and, therefore,
we should be respectful of the human
body. At St. Joseph Mercy Oakland
(SJMO), we focus on patient safety and preserving life. With that mandate,
our highly skilled physicians and surgeons look for the safest, most respectful
way to restore our patients' quality of life.
By
Jack Weiner,
President and CEO
St. Joseph Mercy
Oakland
One of these ways is through minimally invasive surgery. Our
experienced surgeons will employ a minimally invasive surgical procedure
rather than traditional or open surgery, depending on the patient's condition.
There are many benefits to the patient:
• Little or no trauma to the body
• Smaller incisions, usually 1/4- to'/2-inch long
• Less pain and scarring
• Reduced risk of infection
• Shorter hospital stay
• Faster recovery time.
Our innovative, technologically advanced, state-of-the-art Surgical Pavilion
allows our surgeons to offer a higher definition of surgical precision, optimal
patient care and enhanced safety. A major feature of the Surgical Pavilion is
the da Vinci® Surgical System.
The da Vinci robotic surgical system provides an extension of the
surgeon's eyes and hands in the surgical field. It offers more than twice the
viewing resolution and 20 percent more viewing area, which means improved
clarity and detail of tissue planes and anatomy. By way of a console, where
the surgeon views the surgical field, the system seamlessly translates
the surgeon's hand, wrist and finger movements into precise, real-time
movements of surgical instruments inside the patient. Surgeons who employ
the da Vinci find that standard laparoscopic techniques may be performed
more quickly and easily using this system. The da Vinci enhances the
surgeon's capabilities when performing delicate procedures and improves
clinical outcomes.
Minimally invasive procedures are performed at SJMO in the following
areas: General Surgery, Urology, Gynecology, Cardiovascular, Thoracic,
Bariatrics and Neurosurgery.
At SJMO, we employ cutting-edge technology and procedures. We have
perfected the art of minimally invasive surgery, includinghbotic surgery,
and our hospital is consistently recognized for performance excellence,
quality and patient safety. When you need surgery, ask your provider about
a minimally invasive procedure and have him or her refer you to a St. Joe's
surgeon.
DISCOVER
REMARKABLE
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64
October 25 2012
W
hen she's not treating
patients at University of
Michigan Heath System
in Ann Arbor, Dr. Lisa Newman of
Northville can sometimes be found
across the globe in Ghana, Africa,
searching for clues to fight one of the
most lethal forms of breast cancer.
The surgical oncologist, professor of
surgery and director of U-M's Breast
Care Center travels to Ghana twice a
year to treat women and collect data
about what's known as "triple nega-
tive" breast cancer. This often-aggres-
sive cancer tends to grow faster and is
more likely to spread and recur than
other breast cancer subtypes.
"African American women have a
higher frequency of this type of breast
cancer and the frequency is even
higher in Africa," Newman says. "The
women most likely to be afflicted are
younger women in the premenopausal
age range."
Newman, who is African American,
is hoping her research will uncover
genetic and molecular marker infor-
mation that will lead to new treat-
ments. The Harvard University gradu-
ate has received numerous honors for
her work and was recently highlighted
as a "breast cancer hero" in Oprah
Winfrey's 0 Magazine. Her research
also may be relevant to other popula-
tions with increased risk for triple
negative cancer, including Jewish men
and women.
Families carrying certain mutations
in the BRCA genes are among those
considered at higher risk for triple
negative cancers. In the general popu-
lation, 1 in 400 people carry the BRCA
mutation, which means they have an
increased risk of developing breast,
ovarian, prostate or pancreatic cancer.
In the Ashkenazi Jewish population, 1
in 40 people carry the same mutation,
making them more likely to develop
triple negative cancer.
"For the Jewish community, ifs very
important to get a handle on family
history," Newman says. "These would
be red flags for undergoing genetic
counseling and genetic testing. In
general, all women should start getting
mammograms at age 40 every year.
Those with a strong family history
should start getting them 5-10 years
Dr. Lisa Newman
before the youngest age of diagnosis in
that family. Early detection is going to
be very important."
Some experts recommend genetic
testing for women of Ashkenazi Jewish
descent if they have a parent, sister,
brother or child with breast or ovar-
ian cancer at age 50 or younger, or
two aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews or
grandparents on the same side of the
family with breast or ovarian cancer.
Newman says if you're at higher
risk, getting a breast MRI is also use-
ful. She adds that treatments and sur-
gical procedures have evolved dramati-
cally over the last decade. There are
better medications to counteract the
side-effects of chemotherapy, advances
in endocrine (hormonally active)
cancer-fighting treatments and new
therapies on the horizon. She predicts
groundbreaking stem-cell work will
lead to even more dramatic improve-
ments.
"It's very gratifying to be able to
explain to patients that there are
treatment options, and most of these
options will result in successful, effec-
tive treatment," she says. "We can't
make any promises; there are no guar-
antees about anything in life, but for
breast cancer we have a phenomenal
amount of experience and a spectrum
of options to control the disease.
Nobody wants to be diagnosed with
breast cancer, nobody wants to go
through treatment, but if the disease is
diagnosed, we have strategies to offer
enabling us to beat it."
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