Assistant Professor of Surgery Kyo Chu, who specializes in breast cancer, and Spotsylvania native Sylvia Tyree, a 10-year breast cancer survivor, came together Oct. 24 to discuss the disease and answer questions from the University community in Rouss Hall.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority, in recognition of October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, sponsored the event. Chu and Tyree both described their perspectives on breast cancer to the audience.
Tyree detailed her two diagnoses of breast cancer in 1991 and 1994. She emphasized the importance of regular, monthly self-examination for all women-that was the way her malignancies initially were discovered. Also, Tyree discussed the importance of optimism and family support in coping with her life-threatening illness.
"You have to keep a positive mind. Cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence. I try not to let anything get me down. You have to fight for your life, I've always been a fighter and my family knows it. They were behind me 100 percent," Tyree said.
Chu then spoke about medical advances, which have contributed to the present favorable status of breast cancer treatment.
"We have turned the corner on [breast cancer] mortality in the past 10 years," Chu said. "Breast cancer is a cancer that we have caught up with."
Chu pointed out that the different methods of cancer treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, drugs and radiation, frequently are combined to provide comprehensive treatment plans. Also, he mentioned that cosmetic outcomes and risks of muscular debilitation are taken into account when physicians and patients devise courses of breast cancer therapy. Still, modern methods of cancer treatment can be burdensome and painful.
"I was nauseous [from the chemotherapy treatments], very tired. There were dark circles under my eyes," Tyree said, "For the first four days [after the first treatment] I laid in bed, then I made myself get up. I wasn't going to lie in pity. I didn't let it beat me, just didn't give up. I educated myself, I went to the Cancer Center," Tyree said.
Tyree and Chu also described possible risk factors for breast cancer. Tyree explained how family history could often be helpful in understanding predisposition, but before her first diagnosis there was only one distant relative who suffered from breast cancer. One recurrent issue was the connection between ethnicity and risk of negative outcome.
Tyree, an African-American, discussed issues surrounding breast cancer in the black community. She said a cultural focus on the family contributes to black women downplaying their own medical problems in order to take care of their families.
"More white women have breast cancer but more black women die from it. Many black women 'wish it away' and don't want to deal with it," Tyree said.
But Chu noted no difference in survival rates between members of different ethnic groups at a certain stage of the cancer.
He added, though, that other factors, such as socioeconomic and educational variables, might play a larger part in the late diagnosis of breast cancer.
African-American women, he said, tend to get diagnosed at a later stage, thus contributing to their poor outcomes.
Both were optimistic that more awareness would increase early diagnoses and treatment.
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