BreastCheck: empowering women to take charge

Breast cancer is the most common cause of death from cancer in Australian women. Prevention and early detection remain the best defence against the disease, there are some new devices on the market which are empowering women to take charge of their own health.

It’s estimated over 30 people are diagnosed with the condition every day. Kathy Hood, who was diagnosed with the disease 17 years ago and successfully treated at the time, continues to fight for research in an effort to stop this threat to one in 11 Australian women.”Everything happens to you in life for a reason and I think my reason for having breast cancer is to help women and help research and help make people more aware of early detection,” she says.Now, Kathy e-mails 6000 women each month to remind them to check their breasts. She’s also raised $500,000 for research and has tracked down a device on the market in the US, known as BreastCheck, which she is sure will save lives.The BreastCheck device contains a special lubricant that greatly enhances sensitivity, allowing women to self-examine by not actually feeling the skin. According to Kathy, it’s not going to detect everything but it’s certainly a positive step.”Eighty percent of women I know who’ve had breast cancer discovered it themselves and not one of them thought, ‘I’m going to find something’,” she says.Breast cancer survivor Jenny Hyatt found her own breast cancer and needed a lumpectomy then radiation. Twelve months on and Jenny has been given the all-clear. Now though, she’s not taking any chances. In between check-ups with her specialist, Jenny says she’s going to use BreastCheck and is giving her daughters the device too.”I think it [the device] is wonderful. I think a lot of women feel uncomfortable with feeling their own breasts but with this, you’re not actually feeling the skin,” she says. “I think it’ll help a lot of women.”Professor John Boyages, an oncologist and director of the NSW Breast Cancer Institute, says mammography is very important for women over 50 and it’s also free for women over 40 but mammograms are not foolproof and the BreastCheck device is welcome addition to the fight against the disease.”Early detection makes a huge difference,” says Professor Boyages. “For instance, if we find something the size of a five cent piece or smaller and it hasn’t spread to the glands, then the prognosis is as high as 95 percent.”The NSW Breast Cancer Institute and the National Breast Cancer Foundation gain 20 percent of the profits from sales of the device but the organisations claim that’s not the only reason they support it.”We really believe in it because every day we see patients with breast cancer who found the lump by themselves by breast self-examination and if this can help that’d be fabulous, if it means more money for research, even better,” says Professor Boyages.Experts agree half the battle is getting younger women to stop thinking it’s an older woman’s problem with support groups including Mothers Inc. encouraging women to re-think their approach to breast cancer and they like the idea of a device to make it easier.It’s a trend Kathy Hood is hopeful will save more lives in the future.”If we can just save one, but I think probably hundreds, even thousands, of women from going through the invasive treatment of breast cancer by finding earlier, then I think it’s well worthwhile,” she says.The BreastCheck device is one of a number of similar devices beginning to emerge on the market and range from $30-$50. BreastCheck is also TGA-listed.(Source: NSW Breast Cancer Institute: ACA: July 2004)