With breast cancer claiming the lives of two congregants this year and with several others diagnosed with the disease, the president of Berkeley Congregation Beth El Sisterhood felt it was time for the women’s group to go beyond its traditional role.
So Barbara Cohn, an epidemiologist at the California Public Health Foundation, organized a Breast Cancer Forum, inviting several experts to speak at the synagogue.
“Beth El has been hit hard by breast cancer,” said Cohn.
Concerned about the disease, 120 people including several men attended the forum, which was held on Monday of last week. Keynote speaker Andrea Martin told of her mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. She was diagnosed in 1989 with breast cancer with lymph node involvement. At the time, she was 39.
Two years later, Martin found a lump in her remaining breast. Diagnosed with another primary malignancy, she had a second mastectomy and has been on tamoxifen ever since. The drug inhibits metastasis.
“Breast cancer was a silent epidemic at that time,” said Martin. “There was nothing in the newspaper, women didn’t share with each other and there was no leadership in the scientific and medical community.”
Angered by the situation, Martin founded the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco. In the past four years, the fund has raised and given away $3 million to pioneering breast cancer research projects.
Thanks to Martin and others like her, breast cancer is no longer veiled in silence. Women are talking about it, the media is focusing on it and the scientific community is making great strides in diagnosis and treatment.
“Early detection saves lives,” said Dr. Michael Cassidy, an oncologist at Berkeley’s Alta Bates Comprehensive Cancer Center who also spoke at the event. When a tumor measures less than a centimeter (half an inch) there is a 90 percent chance the cancer hasn’t spread, dramatically increasing the survival rate, he said.
But early detection requires a woman to be actively involved in her own health care by having regular mammograms, periodic breast exams by an internist or gynecologist and monthly self-exams, said Cassidy.
“Seventy-five percent of lumps are found by women themselves,” said Shirley McKenzie, nurse coordinator at Alta Bates’ breast cancer program. But many women, whether due to fear, guilt or anxiety, have mental barriers to self-examination.
Eight out of 10 lumps are not cancerous, said McKenzie, a breast cancer survivor who teaches a program on how to perform a thorough breast exam.
“This is a disease that no longer has to be scary,” said geneticist Patricia Kelly, director of Medical Genetics and Cancer Risk Counseling at Alta Bates Comprehensive Breast Center. “We are living at a time when we’re going to be able to do something about it.”
Kelly discussed BRCA1 and BRCA2, genes linked to breast, ovarian and other cancers. In some cases the presence of the mutated gene can indicate a greatly increased risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer.
Although studies have focused on the altered genes in Jewish women of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) background, these women aren’t necessarily at greater risk than the general population and there is no need to panic, Kelly said.
“We have been able to detect mutations in these genes in Ashkenazi women because they are a group that is descended from relatively few people,” said Kelly, explaining that this is a factor that makes such women good study subjects. But not enough is yet known to determine the implications of the presence of the altered gene.
For women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, community support is critical. Harriet Charney said the outpouring of support from the Beth El community helped sustain her through surgery and treatment after her diagnosis last year at age 47.
“It was phenomenal to me how the community responded and friends provided meals,” Charney said. “I came home [after surgery] to find my house filled with flowers. People I didn’t know sent cards and notes.”
The community support also kept her family from feeling alone in this emotionally difficult time.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, my kids had friends who went through this and it helped them feel less isolated,” said Charney.
Discussing how to help friends with breast cancer, Dr. Burton Presberg, director of psychological services at Alta Bates’ Comprehensive Cancer Center, said: “Tikkun olam [repairing the world] happens one step at a time. Just be there and react to what their needs are. Listen, and avoid the tendency to try and fix it.”
He also suggested preparing meals, arranging child care and driving the women to medical appointments.
Speaking about her own experience, Lynne Fingerman credits such support with helping her through the crisis. From the moment she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Fingerman was surrounded by fellow Beth El members. The night she got the diagnosis, a group of friends waited a couple houses away to either celebrate or to comfort her, depending on the news.
Friends arranged months’ worth of dinners. One woman brought over several books and a nine-page summary of her own research on breast cancer treatment options.
“The outpouring was incredible,” says Fingerman. “Friends went to temple to pray for me.”
Learning that her name was read during the Misheberach (prayer for those in need of healing) at Beth El as well as several other synagogues had a profound effect on Fingerman.
“It gave me the emotional strength to get through this,” she says. “I felt strong and confident and on top of the world in some way.”