Breast Cancer Deaths Of Kay Yow and Jeanne Peck Bring To Light Huge Strides
It’s with great sadness to hear of the recent deaths of NC State University Kay Yow and North Carolina activist and Race for the Cure fundraiser, Jeanne Peck – both of these women have been fighting breast cancer for many years. According to AJC they both passed away last week.
It also reminds us of just how far treatments for breast cancer have actually come in the last 20 years. After all it was 20 years ago that both of these woman were diagnosed and it is a testament to the improvement in treatments that they fought and won their battle for so long.
Today those diagnosed with breast cancer have a much better prognosis. The experience they will endure will be significantly different than women of 20 years ago. Back then treatments were very different. The most common treatment back then was to remove all or part of the breast and then follow up with chemo and radiation.
Today women are diagnosed earlier because of the medical imagery available, and while treatments still include mastectomy, chemo, and radiation but today there are many other options. These include treatments like the drug Herceptin, Tamoxifen and a host of other new drugs.
And while today’s breast cancer patient is likely to live longer than the breast cancer patient of 20 years ago, the real hope is that with more treatments coming about in the future breast cancer will be a thing of the past.
The real dream is that breast cancer will be one day understood enough that we can prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. And while time will tell let’s not forget about these two women - Kay Yow and Jeanne Peck – they should be an inspiration to each of us to do what we can to reach the goal of a cure for breast cancer.
