WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Dr. Geoffrey Zann, a gynecologist, advises his patients of the traditional symptoms to look for to detect breast cancer.
Dr. Zann says, “You look for things such as a palpable mass, or changes in the skin, dimpling, puckering, buckling, and a lump that sticks out, sometimes tenderness."
But frequently his patients ask him why a vaccine to prevent breast cancer hasn’t been developed, like it was for polio or measles.
Dr Zann says, "breast cancer is not one disease. When you hear people tell you there are different kinds of breast cancer. I had intraductal, I had lobular, I had lobar, I had phyllodes tumor. It’s not just one disease so it’s hard to develop one vaccine."
But there is progress being made in the development of vaccines. Susan Kristoff was diagnosed in 2003 with stage her 2 positive breast cancer.
Susan Kristoff says, "In 2003 her2 was one of the worst diagnoses you could get, its a very aggressive type of cancer.
After her initial treatment Susan's cancer returned as stage IV cancer, sometimes referred to as incurable cancer. She decided to participate in a clinical trial with a new breast cancer vaccine.
Susan Kristoff says, "I went in 2006 to a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins for treatment with herceptin, which was a fairly new drug anyway and was working really well with her2 positive cancers and I went into complete remission. I guess the story is that stage four isn’t a death sentence for a cancer patient, that many people can live a normal life and manage it like diabetes, and wait on the cure. I'm confident that for many types it will be here shortly."
