Back in 1996, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I had no
clue who I was pitched against in this battle. All I knew was that it involved
surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to fight cancer. I did not know much about the
technical terms I was coming across back then.
Later on, year after year of survival, I realized there are
lot more terms in breast cancer that I had no clue about when I was diagnosed
and went through the treatment. ER positive/negative, PR positive/negative or
triple negative were some terms which I had no clue about.
Later when I heard about BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, I was in
denial that cancer can be genetic, since, if yes, then it meant I would have got
it from my mother. I did not want to feel that way. Though there were hints
with my sister, my mother and myself being diagnosed with breast cancer, I did
not want to accept the fact. But it lead me to read more in detail about inherited
mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 and how they increase the risk of breast and
ovarian cancers in women. It was new information for me to know that these genetic
mutations are associated with higher risks of many different cancers.
Hereditary breast cancer was an unacceptable but genuine bitter pill for me to
swallow.
Finally, I put up enough courage to go ahead with the
mutation testing. The reports came back stating that I was BRCA2 positive.
Since breast cancers associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 tend to develop at younger
ages than the nonhereditary types, it explained my own diagnosis at the age of
29 and my sister’s diagnosis at the age of 30.
With more research
and understanding of cancer, I realized the need of technology in healthcare to
fight cancer the right way. Back in 1996, I thought total radical mastectomy was
the best way for me to fight cancer, even though my doctor gave me an option of
breast conservation. Now I realize that at the age of 29, I need not have surrendered
my whole breast. Though I have learned to live with prosthesis, sometimes I do
miss the symmetry of my body.
There are lot of organizations today, like Tempus, who with
their team of innovators are obsessed with developing breakthroughs in how we
tackle diseases the right way. This will highly customize the treatment that
the patients receive.
One of the most prominent question in most of the people
going through cancer treatment is regarding the outcome of the treatment. Usually we do not get
definite answers to our questions. Fortunately, today the advanced image recognition
algorithms extract key image characteristics from radiology and pathology images
to create imaging data sets to better measure outcomes and to inform predictions.
Though life is quite unpredictable, it is nice to know where we stand in this
battle for our life.
I am aware that today after being a cancer survivor for 22
years, that data analyses plays an important role in the outcome of treatment
results. I realize that something like sequencing services and analyses of
somatic and germline molecular data along with therapeutic data will empower
those dedicated physicians to make better data-driven decisions to give those
fighting cancer a better chance of living quality life for a longer period of
time. Technology will give us the edge over cancer. Innovative and breakthrough
technics like Bioinformatics system delivers accurate variant cells of genomic
and transcriptomic data. Further, classification platform combines complex
algorithms with a robust set of curated databases to enable experts to make
fast and thorough decisions, all in the context of a patient's case. This new approach to next-generation sequencing
aided by modern technology will give doctors today an access to a
variety of sequencing capabilities, all with full transcriptome and
tumor/normal match which will customize treatment for a specific patient and
target the cancer cells more accurately.
After 22 years of
survival, though my risk of recurrence has come down tremendously, it still
gives me more courage and hope that with present developments in cancer treatment, I
can fight it off if it ever makes a come back again. Thanks to all the people
who are trying to make cancer treatment more successful.
I have lost my
mother and my sister to breast cancer. I hope technology and dedicated research to fight cancer will prevent others from losing their loved ones to this
disease.
