Family matters

Wthen Karen Barton first received that call on a Friday afternoon, she was scared.

On the other end of the line the doctor said, “You have breast cancer …” He went into treatment options, but after that, all she heard was “blah, blah, blah.”

Barton was an average, active mom. At 38 years old, she would get her son ready for school, go to work, come home, cook dinner, and maybe go to a baseball game or wrestling match.

“I had never even had a breast exam, and for some reason one day I decided to, and I found a lump,” Barton said. “It was right after my father passed away, and I swear he had a part in everything.”

It was important to her not to lose her hair, and she was grateful that she was able to have radiation that avoided that. She continued to work and live her daily life, but she did have a partial mastectomy.

Eight years later, she was scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy for lymphoma, and she told her doctor that she had felt another breast lump.

“He removed the tumor and told me he had good news and bad news,” Barton said. “The good news was that my bone marrow was fine, but I had breast cancer again.”

This time she had to have chemotherapy, and one of her worst fears came true—she lost her hair.

“It is bad enough to lose your breasts, but to lose your hair on top of it makes it all real,” she said. “I was sitting at my desk, and a handful of hair would just fall out into my hands.”

Her positive attitude, close friends and loving husband helped her through everything she would overcome after the reoccurrence. Her husband went to every treatment, every reconstruction, and was her rock. After hearing the news about her hair, he drove her to the mall, took her to a jewelry store and bought her a past, present, future diamond ring.

“It is really hard on the person who has cancer, but it is even harder on the family because there isn't really a lot they can do for you,” Barton said.

Her friend Dana was holding her hand when she woke up from a total mastectomy, and helped soothe her with the words, “Everything is temporary, and it gets better.”

Dr. Brian Juell's, M.D., F.A.C.S., main focus is just that—it gets better. Juell is a general surgeon who is well regarded for his work with conditions of the breast. He is the current director for Renown's Breast Cancer Center and a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

“We are very successful in treating patients with breast cancer,” Juell said. “There are about 400,000 women that develop breast cancer each year as a new diagnosis, and we successfully treat at least 70 percent of those patients.”

Breast cancer is a malignancy that starts in the breast and can spread depending on its stage. Juell said that 1 in 8 women develop breast cancer in their life, and it is more common in 50 to 70 year old women.

Breast cancer develops differently than other cancers because it can grow to a fairly large size before obtaining the ability to spread. This makes awareness essential to catching the cancer in the early stages so it's curable.

Women should look for any unusual mass on the breast, redness and unusual drainage from the nipple, or deformity on the skin. However, it isn't always this easy.

“We try to encourage women who are in vulnerable age groups to have screening tests by either a physician or a mammogram,” Juell said. “On a mammogram, we can find a tumor as small as a few millimeters in diameter whereas you cannot possibly feel that.”

Most cancers Juell discovers through screening are early stage cancers where treatment is primarily surgical. Other treatments include chemotherapy, hormonal manipulation and radiation. One treatment that Juell is looking to bring to Reno is Radio Frequency Inflation. This is a way of using high frequency sound waves or radio waves to heat the tissue and kill it with a “microwave treatment.”

Genetics do play a significant role in the susceptibility of breast cancer for certain individuals who have a family history of cancer. For example, Angelina Jolie made headlines when she made the decision to have both breasts removed because her mother died from breast cancer at a young age.

“BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and other genetic defects can be identified through genetic testing,” Juell said. “We like to test patients and look at their history to give them the opportunity to subject to periodical screening, or in some cases like Jolie's, have a double mastectomy to reduce the risk.”

For Juell, it is all about talking with patients. He was drawn to this aspect of general surgery because he wanted to be the kind of doctor that spent time with patients and supported them. At Renown, there are programs for patients that focus on survivorship.

“The fact that there are so many women who beat this type of cancer is critical to helping patients go back to enjoying their life without that constant fear of reoccurrence,” Jeull said. “It gives patients hope, and in a bleak period in their lives it is important for them to be optimistic.”

For Barton, her experience helped her to live every day to its fullest and to not take things for granted. When her husband retires in February, they will hike, golf and fish in Hawaii, or if they don't feel like doing anything, they won't.

“When patients see you doing well it really does give them hope,” Barton said.