Rachel Brem, MD, already had a plan. She would get one Prophylactic mastectomydetermined to come in front of Breast cancer This time. When Dr. Brem was only 12, her mother had been diagnosed and told her that she had six months to live. Although her mother eventually underwent a successful operation and lived another 44 years, the experience left a lasting impact. “Our lives were completely turning up and down,” Dr. Brem. That was what drove Dr. Brem to medicine in the first place and convinced her of the importance of Early discovery; Part of why her mother could strike breast cancer was because it had been caught early.
Dr. Brem did not want her own children to go through what she had, so she was tested for the BRCA gene. When the results came back positively, she decided to have a bilateral preventive mastectomy. At that time, Dr. Brem more prepared than most to make such a big decision. She was MD and worked as head of breast image at Johns Hopkins.
“You can try to fool (breast cancer), but you can never be sure you get away with it.”
But of course cancer does not care about education, experience or how well someone may understand the disease – and it does not follow timelines. “You can try to fool (breast cancer), but you can never be sure you will get away with it,” says Dr. Brem.
At 37 years old, she learned that the hard way.
Months before her preventive mastectomy tested Dr. Brem ultrasound equipment for different suppliers – something she did regularly as part of her job. “After a day of seeing patients, I would try the equipment on myself and see which one has the best image quality. And so, that night I found out which one has the best image quality, but when I scanned myself, I also found my own breast cancer.”
The discovery came with a flood of emotions. On the one hand, Dr. Brem “Happy with the power of knowledge.” But she was also simply terrified. “I had three young daughters. I didn’t know I would survive to raise them,” she tells PS. Also: “The idea of cancer surgery – which is much more intense than the type of surgery I planned to have – and by going through chemotherapy it is scary for someone,” says Dr. Brem.
Fortunately, it was not so traumatic to break the news to her children as her own experience. “My daughters had lived with the idea of breast cancer all my life – that’s what their mother did (for work),” she tells PS. “It was dinner call.” In many ways, Dr. Brem luck for that. Although she did not break the generation diagnosis, she could break the trauma.
Cancer treatment is never easy, but Dr. Brem knows enough about what the trip may seem to estimate that her experience was relatively seamless. She also knows that this is often not the case. “When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, if it is medically reasonable, they say:” Do you want to do a lumpectomy or a mastectomy? “And the answer is,” Gee, I really don’t want breast cancer, “she says.” You have to make these crazy changes in life with so little information. “Dr. Brem could not imagine having to do it but the years of medical training under her belt.
Not to mention, breast cancer is not an equal opportunity disease, Dr. Brem Point outs. Ashkenazi Jewish women are 10 times more likely to have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation than the general US population. And Black women die of breast cancer at much higher pace Because they get this more aggressive form of triple negative breast cancer. Connect it with a lack of access, socio -economic obstacles and racial differences in healthcare and the odds of survival can be disappointed. Dr. Brem invests in early exploration efforts, says Dr. Brem to Ps.
That’s why she’s not only Co -authors of a book, “no longer radical”, about navigation of mastectomies – But also founded the Brem Foundation, an organization devoted to enabling early discovery for more people through access, education, advocates. Since this is the start, the foundation has launched partnerships as Wheels for women with lifting – which gives free rides to Mammogram meetings For women with low income and Checkmate, an online quiz Designed to interpret your risk factors and suggest what you should talk to your doctor about breast cancer. And personally, as head of the Breast Department and Intervention Center at the George Washington Cancer Center, she has made it her mission to invest in and work to develop new technology for early detection of breast cancer.
Across the whole line of everything: early discovery. It has been an essential part of Dr. Brem’s work and decades long career. That is what she credits to save her own life and her mother. And that’s what she thinks will carry us into the future.
“We type a cure for breast cancer – (it is) early discovery,” says Dr. Brem. When she focuses on efforts there, she hopes that for an increasing number of women, breast cancer can be like any other chronic illness, such as hypertension or diabetes. “That people can live with breast cancer, even Metastatic breast cancer For decades, she says.
Alexis Jones (She/her) is senior health and fitness editor on ps. During his six years of editorial experience, Alexis has developed passions and areas of expertise on mental health, women’s health and fitness, racial and ethnic differences in health care and chronic conditions. Before she came to PS, she was a senior editor at Health Magazine. Her second bylines are available at Women’s Health, Prevention, Marie Claire and more.
