RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – “There’ll be about 300,000 new cases — which is a lot of people — and so just the diagnosis itself is scary. So, to have that hope that improvement in survival and outcomes really makes a big difference,” said Dr. Allan Eisemann, with RRMC’s Foley Cancer Center.
Officials at Rutland Regional Medical Center’s Foley Cancer Center say early screenings for breast cancer are key, and that they have some of the state’s most advanced technology used in the field to help start the care process early.
“Early screening, we think, is certainly a part of it because we’re finding these cancers that are three four five millimeters and we’re able to biopsy them with ultrasound techniques that are available that didn’t used to be,” Eisemann said.
“I’m seeing women are having more of an awareness of their own body and also we’re explaining and giving a lot more education than before,” said Brittany Loyzelle, a breast care navigator at the hospital who helps guide patients through the care process. She says she’s seeing younger women at her office. “Average risk women should start their screenings — mammograms at age 40. But women starting at age 25 need to first have a conversation with their doctor to see if they are high risk because they may need a screening mammography early.”
Younger women aren’t the only ones who should be mindful of breast cancer. While rare, experts say over 2,500 men have or will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024.
“Just knowing that men do get breast cancer and knowing that we get men usually about every week that come into our facility for breast imagining, it is more common than most patients are aware of,” Loyzelle said.
Eisemann says men and women can receive the same treatment when diagnosed, but he says it’s the steps beforehand that can make the difference. “Most of the time, breast cancer in men is in an elderly group, it’s not in young men. So, it’s more people getting used to the idea of examining themselves on some kind of regular basis and not ignoring something that they discover,” he said.
Doctors at RRMC advocate for screenings starting at 40 years old in women and to make sure any abnormalities are checked out and screened.