HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post

TanyaRD · 11-09-2009, 06:45 AM

AA,
I admire your mission and believe it to be a very important one. I also find your statement of breast cancer (hormone sensitive) being an endocrine disease to be very thought provoking. Weight gain during and after breast cancer treatment is very common across the board of tumor types and is poorly understood. Women who have triple negative disease also experience weight gain. It is an area that deserves more attention in the research realm. As a practitioner I try to catch the weight gain before it starts. Of course, I work in a med-onc office and therefore only catch the women who are treated with chemotherapy. I see them starting at the beginning of treatment, through treatment and then meet when treatment is complete to really get them going on some survivorship goals (i.e. very well balanced, low fat diet and regular exercise). We have developed a survivorship program at our center which I understand to be a rarity but very important. The IOM put out their report "From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition" in 2006 calling for a better system for survivors. This is an area of passion for me and I believe it should be standard of care in all centers. Currently, our system really drops the ball in this area but I do see slow improvements.

11-09-2009, 06:45 AM	#38
TanyaRD Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 358	Re: Breast cancer, and seeking advice AA, I admire your mission and believe it to be a very important one. I also find your statement of breast cancer (hormone sensitive) being an endocrine disease to be very thought provoking. Weight gain during and after breast cancer treatment is very common across the board of tumor types and is poorly understood. Women who have triple negative disease also experience weight gain. It is an area that deserves more attention in the research realm. As a practitioner I try to catch the weight gain before it starts. Of course, I work in a med-onc office and therefore only catch the women who are treated with chemotherapy. I see them starting at the beginning of treatment, through treatment and then meet when treatment is complete to really get them going on some survivorship goals (i.e. very well balanced, low fat diet and regular exercise). We have developed a survivorship program at our center which I understand to be a rarity but very important. The IOM put out their report "From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition" in 2006 calling for a better system for survivors. This is an area of passion for me and I believe it should be standard of care in all centers. Currently, our system really drops the ball in this area but I do see slow improvements.