October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and known best by its pink theme color.

It's a time dedicated to raising awareness, supporting those affected, and promoting early detection.

Our Christine speaks with a leading breast cancer surgeon about prevention, treatment options, and groundbreaking advancements in breast cancer care.

That in tonight's medical news, we have with us here today, Doctor Alyssa Dahl from Norton Health Care.

She's a breast surgeon.

Doctor doll.

It is breast cancer awareness month.

So what are the most important things you wish everyone knew about breast cancer?

Yeah, I think first and foremost, most importantly screenings.

So screenings are very important.

We recommend yearly mammograms for patients.

Any women above the age of 40 should have a yearly mammogram to detect for any signs of breast cancer.

We know that screening mammograms help to detect cancer at the earliest stages.

Okay.

Over the last ten, 20 years, how has breast cancer research and treatment evolved?

Yes, there have been just explosive growth in breast cancer treatment.

Research changes with treatment.

I think every year we're constantly learning more.

And one of the benefits, I think, of working at a place like Norton Healthcare and being a part of the Breast program is is being up to date and working with teams that are constantly growing and staying up to date with that research.

Okay.

Well, what's something new and exciting that's on the horizon that we need to be on the lookout for?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing in breast cancer right now is this idea of personalization of their breast cancer treatment.

And so breast cancer used to be treated the same in every patient who had breast cancer.

But now treatment is very focused on the individual on the case, on the type of cancer and on the stage.

And so we really have very personalized breast cancer treatment now.

Okay.

Well what are some of the treatment options.

And is one more common than another.

Yeah.

So in general breast cancer is treated with three I call them three pillars of treatment are basically three specialists.

One is surgery which is what I do.

Two is radiation and then three is medicines.

So a surgical oncologist, radiation oncologist and a medical oncologist there are different options kind of within each specialty.

For surgery, you know the two surgical options are breast conserving surgery or mastectomy.

The other thing we evaluate are the lymph nodes.

So that's one example.

Another example is medical therapy.

So some people think that when you're diagnosed with cancer everybody needs chemotherapy which used to be the case.

But now we know that not all women would benefit from chemotherapy.

And so there's a very personalized approach to, who chemotherapy would be beneficial in versus maybe there's another approach, a medication or an estrogen blocking medication that would be more appropriate in certain select cases.

Okay.

So walk me through this.

Let's say, you have a patient come in who has been diagnosed recently.

Diagnosed, what can they expect.

What are going to be the next steps.

Yeah.

So within Norton, once they have their biopsy they're usually called and informed of the results.

And then pretty quickly we get patients in to see different specialists.

The surgeon sometimes the radiation oncologist and the medical oncologist as well to talk about next steps.

When I meet with patients, the first thing I do is discuss the biopsy results and kind of explain what's going on, what this means, and break down all of the details of the report from the biopsy.

The next thing I talk about during that initial appointment is what are in general, the treatment steps.

And then specific to that patient, what are the next steps.

Okay.

Let's talk about prevention for a minute.

Because, you know, prevention will keep many from having to go through this at all.

So what are the best ways to prevent one thing we know that increases somebody's risk of breast cancer is increased alcohol consumption, increased weight or lack of exercise.

So those are things that women can do to positively affect their risk of breast cancer.

Okay.

What advice do you have for somebody who is going through breast cancer treatment right now?

It's a very difficult time.

And the first thing I would say to patients is you are not alone.

Breast cancer is one of the most, if not the most common cancer in women.

1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.

And I think knowing that you are surrounded by people who have been through this before, as well as trust in your health care team, knowing that you have very qualified people that are going to take care of you and get you to the other side.

So the other thing that I remind patients is our goal for treatment of breast cancer in the vast majority of cases is cure, is to treat the disease and put it behind you so that you can continue to live your life.

Yeah, that's great advice.

Well, Doctor Elissa doll, thank you so much for your time and expertise and helping to raise awareness.

Thank you so much.