Medical experts across the United States and in our local area continue to pursue advancements in the areas of breast cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.

It is critical that everyone pay attention to several new and developing efforts to help breast cancer patients, experts say.

“It’s important that we continue to make major advances in research in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer,” said Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, a breast health specialist at the Mayo Clinic’s Breast Diagnostic Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women today. Women do die from this disease. The more we can do to advance our understanding about ways to improve early detection will lead to better treatments and prognosis for our patients.”

The medical community is focusing breast cancer research efforts on better defining and understanding the differences in breast tumors, according to Dr. Maryam B. Lustberg, assistant professor of medicine in the division of medical oncology at The Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center in Columbus.

“We know clearly now that breast cancer is not one disease but comprised of several different molecularly defined subtypes,” she said. “By understanding these differences, we can tailor our treatments so that they are more effective and less toxic.”

In addition, mammograms are now typically digital, which provides more accuracy in the area of diagnosis, explained Dr. Louis Gene Vassy, a breast surgeon for OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center in Columbus, and a member of the regional board for the American Cancer Society.

“Any woman who gets a mammogram should insist on having a digital mammogram,” Vassy said. ” … No one should be getting a film-screen (mammography). The digital mammography is much more sensitive.”

Medical professionals also are using technologies such as tomosynthesis if they think a mammogram is “not clearly showing what is going on in the breast,” Lustberg said. Digital tomosynthesis uses X-rays to create a three-dimensional picture of the breast, according to Breastcancer.org.

Furthermore, breast cancer treatments are now becoming more individualized, said Dr. Stephen Grobmyer, director of Surgical Oncology and Breast Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

“We are learning that breast cancer is not one disease but that there are many types of breast cancer, and we are, through research, learning that certain treatments are best for specific types of breast cancer,” he said. “These improvements are allowing us to specifically tailor treatments to the needs of each patient, which ultimately will increase the efficacy of treatment and reduce the side effects of treatment.”

What’s next?

While these advancements and several others continue to revolutionize the world of breast cancer research, diagnosis and treatment, more can still be done, national experts said.

Lustberg foresees more individualized treatment for breast cancer patients in the future.

“The future is very promising,” she said. “I see more and more individualized treatment plans in the horizon, where we will test given tumors and test the individual with the breast cancer and can come up with a very tailored, evidence-based plan for tackling the cancer.”

Future research efforts should also focus on breast cancer prevention, Pruthi said.

“Can we do a better job of preventing breast cancer?” she said. “… I think that’s where the future of research is. Are there things that women can do to modify their lifestyle? … Are there medications that (an) individual can take if she is at a high risk to prevent breast cancer?”

Additionally, Dr. Lynn Hartmann — a professor of oncology, cancer researcher, one of the developers of the Women’s Cancer Program and book co-editor at the Mayo Clinic — said she thinks the medical community will focus more on helping breast cancer survivors deal with the lasting side effects of the disease.

“The majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer go on to survive long term, and we call them breast cancer survivors,” she said. “There are millions of them. The focus on survivorship is something relatively new. It’s so important. How do we help women deal with nagging, lasting side effects of some of the treatments they might have had? How do we help them with intimacy issues that may be bothering them because of the surgery or treatment they had?”

Grobmyer said the future of breast cancer research, treatment and diagnosis looks promising.

“There are many exciting emerging areas in breast cancer on the horizon,” he said. “Research into the genetics of breast cancers is accelerating at a very rapid pace and will further allow us to identify patients at increased risk for breast cancer and ultimately earlier interventions to prevent breast cancer and reduce the impact of the disease. Additionally, I think we are going to see major advances in breast imaging, which will not only allow us to detect and diagnose breast cancer but ultimately treat breast cancer non-invasively.”