New tools are transforming Pittsburgh breast cancer treatment

Lissa Yanack had been free of cancer for four years when doctors diagnosed her with the same type of cancer.

This time, in early 2019, triple-negative breast cancer spread to the lymph nodes above the collarbone.

Yanack and her husband didn’t know what the future would look like, so they headed west and climbed Camelback Mountain in Arizona.

“There I lost my hair … the second time,” said Yanack, 32, from South Hills, Pittsburgh.

Yanack is now gun-free. Doctors treated deadly cancers with a new drug therapy developed by UPMC researchers. Suffering from debilitating nausea, Yanak was able to withstand her cancer treatment with acupuncture, a treatment that involves inserting a fine needle into the skin to treat pain and other illnesses. She recently received free treatment at the non-profit Glimmer of Hope, which has partnered with the Allegheny Health Network’s new cancer center.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, full of pink ribbons, bows and success stories, but there’s still a lot to do and life needs to be saved. According to the American Cancer Society, about 90% of women survive breast cancer because of research and newly developed treatments.

But for the other 10%, breast cancer remains deadly. The prospects for survival and life with treatment are hellish and uncertain.

The Yanack story is just one part of a hospital study and multiple clinical trials in the Pittsburgh area for the detection, treatment, and recovery of breast cancer.

At the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, doctors use immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer and, in combination with chemotherapy, treats triple-negative breast cancer such as Janac. According to the American Cancer Society, the most disastrous 5-year survival rate for triple negatives is 11% if the cancer progresses and spreads to remote parts of the body.

Yanac was treated with atezolizumab, an immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy, developed by Dr. Reisha Emmens, co-leader of the Hillman Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program.

Dr. Robert Feliz, director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, said doctor scientist Emens could easily move from the lab to the bedside to treat patients.

Emence’s treatment of immunotherapy and chemotherapy helps 20% to 30% of triple-negative patients by shrinking or keeping the tumor dormant, Feliz said.

The frontier is now elucidating why not all women are benefiting from immunotherapy / chemotherapy, Feliz said.

“It’s great to cure cancer all at once, but progress is gradual,” he said.

Help more to live through treatment

On the outside, life-saving treatments make everything better again, but they are not without a substantive indomitable spirit and additional help.

“I was always sick, so I was scared to go to the place,” Yanack said.

Acupuncture, which is provided free of charge twice a month, has eliminated nausea, she said. Such treatments are not covered by traditional health insurance. That’s why the local non-profit organization Glimmer of Hope offered acupuncture for free. She said Yanack would not have been able to live a normal life through treatment without it.

Nonprofits work with AHN to Glimmer of Hope Metastatic Breast Cancer Center At the AHN Cancer Institute at Allegheny General Hospital on the north side of Pittsburgh. The center is aimed at patients whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

At the center, you can visit many doctors with one-stop shopping and receive many medical services with one visit. It will also help facilitate the process of qualifying for clinical trials of new therapies offered by AHN in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Diana Napper, founder of the Glimmer of Hope Foundation in 1994, said: “I want to help women when they have cancer and provide foundation-paid services such as acupuncture.

Although treatment has come a long way, metastatic breast cancer remains an incurable disease in most cases, says Dr. Christie Hilton, director of the Glimmer of Hope Metastatic Breast Cancer Center at the AHN Cancer Institute and chief of oncology. Said.

“These women need some treatment for the rest of their lives, which has side effects,” she said.

Some patients don’t lose their hair and don’t look like cancer patients, but they face problems such as pain, burning, nausea, vomiting, and constipation, Hilton said.

“They need more help and shouldn’t have to spend their entire lives in the clinic’s waiting room,” Hilton said.

“We need to be flexible and strive to make the illness experience a better one,” Napper added.

Shorter radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer

Earlier this year, UPMC conducted the latest breakthrough research in Europe that could reduce radiation by more than half in women treated for early-stage breast cancer from stage 0 to stage II. More health care systems are expected to follow.

Women can usually expect about 20 days of radiation after surgery, wasting energy, time, and money.

“The shorter the duration of radiation, the less side effects it has on breast tissue, the less fatigue it has, and the less costly it is for patients,” said UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Deputy Director of Radiation Services, Department of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Ssilberiwal, the director, said. At UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital.

Radiation therapy is personalized, so another part of the treatment is that one size is not enough for all.

Mary Antomas is a Tribune Review Staff Writer.You can contact Mary at 724-226-4691 [email protected] Or via Twitter ..