Breast Cancer

One of our Essentially Women members, Kathy Dibben with Absolute Dignity in Missouri, is looking for someone to purchase her business. Dibben, like many EW members, is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She opened her shop in 2007 after struggling to find good-fitting bras and swimwear after her bilateral mastectomy. Twelve years after opening her store, she now is in need of a buyer or she will be forced to close her business. Her cancer has spread to multiple locations and is being placed in

The Food and Drug Administration granted its first approval to an immunotherapy regimen for breast cancer on March 8, 2019. This decision comes after an October study from the New England Journal of Medicine found that therapy extended progression-free survival of triple-negative breast cancer. Progression-free survival with the treatment was on average 7.4 months, compared to 4.8 months with the placebo.  This new treatment is the first time immunotherapy has worked in this type of breast

Essentially Women has been working for the past year to have custom breast prosthesis covered by Medicare. Custom Breast Prosthesis legislation is about making sure women have ALL of the choices available to them, whether it be reconstruction, off the shelf breast prosthesis, custom breast prosthesis or to go flat. A little history on the Breast Cancer Patient Equality Act The Breast Cancer Patient Equality Act was originally introduced in 2011, during the 112th Congress by Senator Olympia

Waterloo, Iowa – March 1, 2019 – Representatives on both sides of the aisle re-introduced the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act bill that, if passed, will expand Medicare coverage to include custom breast prosthesis as an option for women recovering from mastectomy surgery. The bipartisan bills S. 562 and H.R. 1370 were co-sponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowsi (R-AK) in the Senate, along with Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) in the

As you know, Essentially Women has been working for the past year to have custom breast prosthesis covered by Medicare. Custom Breast Prosthesis legislation is about making sure women have ALL of the choices available to them, whether it be reconstruction, off the shelf breast prosthesis, custom breast prosthesis or to go flat. The beginning of 2019 has been busy already. I spent the first week of the year with Tom Powers, a key part of our Government Relations team, in Washington, D.C. drumming

A new study found that Asian women who had immigrated to the United States and spent more than half their lives in the U.S. were three times as likely to have breast cancer as compared to Asian-American women who were born in the U.S. This is a shift from historical norms of U.S. women historically having higher rates of breast cancer as compared to the rest of the world. The shift could be due to globalization and economic development including access to breast cancer screenings, later childbirth,

A team of German doctors has potentially found a blood test that could help with early detection of breast cancer. This test referred to as "liquid biopsy" is a noninvasive way to detect breast cancer in the bloodstream. This study is new and continuing to determine it's viability with other types of cancer. It is expected to be marketed later this year. Read more from Fox 5. 

A University of Oklahoma researcher may have identified a new treatment for breast cancer that targets a specific molecule to keep the disease from spreading. This research was funded through a grant from the National Cancer Institute to determine why the DNPH1 is overproduced in breast cancer cases and if eliminating it would prevent cancer from spreading. If a drug could be developed to stop the molecule from spreading, it could help prevent cancer from metastasizing in other parts of the body. Read