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But…I’m sorry you are here. It means that breast cancer has touched you
or someone close to you. HOWEVER, the REALLY GOOD NEWS is that doctors,
scientists, and even patients are CONSTANTLY improving our
understanding of this disease thru research. And…the more we know about
breast cancer, the better we can TREAT or even PREVENT it. In the past 10
years, many new medicines have been developed and approved for breast
cancer: trastuzumab (Herceptin), capecitabine (Xeloda), pegfilgrastim
(Neulasta), darbepoetin (Aranesp), epirubicin (Ellence), anastrazole
(Arimidex), letrozole (Femara), exemestane (Aromasin) nab-paclitaxel
(Abraxane)…and there are others.
What
is MOST EXCITING to me and what I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT is the unraveling
of the BIOLOGY of BREAST CANCER. What causes it in the first place?
What keeps it going? How does it evade our treatments? Why do certain
cancers NEVER come back? To me, this is like standing on the edge of
the universe and looking into the mystery of life itself. And it is
breathtakingly awesome!
My husband, the joker in our family, tells the story of a man talking to God.
Man: “God, what is a million years like to you?”
God: “My son, it’s like a second to you.”
Man: “And how about a million dollars?”
God: “It’s like a few pennies to you.”
Man: “Well, then, God, would you give me a few pennies?”
God: “Sure, my son, just a sec.”
In some ways, I feel like we’ve progressed a million years since I left
MD Anderson in 1997. In other ways, I feel like it’s only been a few seconds,
because the more we learn about breast cancer, the more complex it
turns out to be. That is certainly true about one of the treatments,
tamoxifen, that we’ve been using since the 1970’s. Using state of the art information, continuously learning,
lecturing, writing, and with the help of my colleagues and even my
patients, CONTRIBUTING to FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF BREAST CANCER thru
clinical research are my professional goals. AND…helping every patient
understand and cope with their situation as if she were my own family.
Hugs,
Frankie Ann Holmes, MD, FACP
September 29, 2007 |
