Speaker 1: Oh hello, Welcome to Healthy Ish, your daily podcasts from
Speaker 1: Body and Soul. I'm your host, Felicity Harley. You've no
Speaker 1: doubt read the headlines. You've seen the statistics breast cancer
Speaker 1: in young women is increasing pretty concerning, isn't it? So?
Speaker 1: The big question why and what can you do to
Speaker 1: help protect yourself no matter what your age? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: joined today by Cure Cancer postdoctoral researcher at the Olivia
Speaker 1: Newton John Cancer Research Institute, doctor Kelly Moushmore. Of course,
Speaker 1: we are highlighting Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She's going to
Speaker 1: talk about all of the above, these scary statistics and
Speaker 1: how you can protect yourself. Make sure you're listening to
Speaker 1: Extra healthy Ish, our sister podcast, where Kelly discusses the
Speaker 1: impact of family history on your likelihood of breast cancer.
Speaker 1: You can get that wherever you get your podcasts. Kelly,
Speaker 1: thank you for us on Healthy Today. How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm great, Thank you so much for having me. I'm
Speaker 2: really happy to discuss some things about breast cancer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so glad we've got you on this podcast.
Speaker 1: We should have got you on a lot earlier. But
Speaker 1: as we all know, the stats are increasing more young
Speaker 1: women are getting cancer. Why the increase? What's going on
Speaker 1: out there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really complex issue and we currently don't
Speaker 2: have a clear answer. So for melanoma, we know that
Speaker 2: sun exposure is a really important risk factor, and we
Speaker 2: know with lung cancer, smoking is really important. But breast
Speaker 2: cancer is a bit trickier. We know that if young
Speaker 2: women have inherited a mutation so you might have heard
Speaker 2: of bracker before, this can lead to very aggressive disease
Speaker 2: that can appear really early. But in terms of general risk,
Speaker 2: this can be a combination of a lot of lifestyle factors,
Speaker 2: so alcohol intake, maybe leading a more sedentary lifestyle, so
Speaker 2: lack of exercise and being overweight, and also how our
Speaker 2: lives are different now we're having children at a later
Speaker 2: age and having less children, So together all of these
Speaker 2: factors could potentially lead to increase risk. But in saying that,
Speaker 2: breast cancer can also happen in perfectly healthy young women.
Speaker 2: So there's still a lot that we really don't know
Speaker 2: or understand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's well said. I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: one reason it could be this. It could be this,
Speaker 1: it could be this. I mean, we don't really know
Speaker 1: as yet, and it's really concerning, especially when you see
Speaker 1: the Cape Middleton headlines, and I mean the headlines. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if we're a young woman and young women is under
Speaker 1: fifty is and is that what you categorize the age
Speaker 1: bracket ads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so early breast early cancers are classified as people
Speaker 2: under the age of fifty. But often when people are
Speaker 2: talking about early breast cancer, they're talking about under the
Speaker 2: age of forty. And so when we see the statistics,
Speaker 2: we have seen that in Australia there'll be one thousand
Speaker 2: women under the age of forty who are diagnosed with
Speaker 2: breast cancer each year.
Speaker 1: Gosh, that's a lot. Talk to us about triple negative
Speaker 1: breast cancer now and why this is well relevant to
Speaker 1: those women under thirty specifically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we're diagnosed with breast cancer, a pathologist
Speaker 2: looks at our tumor and will classify it into a type.
Speaker 2: And triple negative is a type that is found in
Speaker 2: around ten to fifteen percent of all breast cancer patients.
Speaker 2: And it's called triple negative because it's missing three things
Speaker 2: that are found on other types of breast cancer. And
Speaker 2: these things are to do with hormones. So because triple
Speaker 2: negative patients missing these things to do with hormones. They
Speaker 2: aren't eligible for therapies that other type of breast cancer
Speaker 2: patients get where we try to block the effects of hormones,
Speaker 2: and it's because they're not eligible for these therapies that
Speaker 2: they have really limited treatment options, so usually just chemotherapy,
Speaker 2: which sometimes isn't that effective, and triple negative patients often
Speaker 2: see quite aggressive disease that's likely to recur.
Speaker 1: So what's your research, because your research is specifically on
Speaker 1: this area, tell us a bit about well, what you're
Speaker 1: trying to find.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so my interest is mostly in a treatment called immunotherapy,
Speaker 2: and immunotherapy has kind of been a game changer for
Speaker 2: triple negative breast cancer. So it was approved in Australia
Speaker 2: around two years ago and it's a way to kind
Speaker 2: of supercharge our immune system to try and fight off
Speaker 2: the breast cancer. But we currently don't know who it
Speaker 2: will and won't benefit, so it only actually helps about
Speaker 2: fifty percent of triple negative patients. So my current work,
Speaker 2: which I want to give a shout out, is funded
Speaker 2: by a wonderful Australian charity called Cure Cancer. What I'm
Speaker 2: doing is I'm looking at samples from triple negative patients
Speaker 2: who have had immunotherapy and trying to find out what
Speaker 2: it is about their tumor that meant that they had
Speaker 2: a good or a not so good response to immune therapy.
Speaker 1: So you think it's more to do with the tumor
Speaker 1: rather than how their bodies, how their immune systems fighting
Speaker 1: fighting it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we often see in the tumor that the
Speaker 2: immune system is trying to get rid of the cancer,
Speaker 2: but it's either stuck at the edges of the cancer
Speaker 2: and can't get in, or the tumor cells have kind
Speaker 2: of told the immune system to go to sleep, like
Speaker 2: there's nothing here, nothing to see. You just lay low
Speaker 2: and I'll continue to grow and spread. So we call
Speaker 2: that immune exhaustion. So that can happen as well. And
Speaker 2: there's no sort of one thing that's happening in triple negative.
Speaker 2: Every patient can have a completely different looking tumor.
Speaker 1: Wow, I mean that must be equally frustrating and equally
Speaker 1: inspiring to try and find the answer to it. Now,
Speaker 1: just back to general breast cancer or all different types
Speaker 1: of breast cancer. The current recommendation for the MAMMA grand
Speaker 1: the breast screening is age fifty to seventy four years.
Speaker 1: I mean for a woman who is under that, that
Speaker 1: can be quite concerning. Do you think we should make
Speaker 1: this younger or should women be putting their hand up
Speaker 1: in having these? I mean, I don't think we can
Speaker 1: can I'm not quite sure of when you over forty
Speaker 1: that you can have it, because I've definitely had a few.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that the current breast screen program is
Speaker 2: for women above fifty, but that is actually for a
Speaker 2: very good reason, and it's because breast screening is normally
Speaker 2: conducted by a mammogram, and mammograms aren't especially good at
Speaker 2: picking up breast cancer in young women. And this is
Speaker 2: actually because younger women tend to have more dense breast tissue,
Speaker 2: and so the mammogram can't potentially see the tumor within
Speaker 2: the really dense breast tissue. So mammograms aren't great for
Speaker 2: younger women. Instead, you're more likely to need something like
Speaker 2: an ultrasound. And I would say that if younger women
Speaker 2: do have a strong family history of breast cancer, then
Speaker 2: they're pretty likely to already have an arrangement with their
Speaker 2: clinician where they would be having increased screening via ultrasound.
Speaker 1: Now, for everyone listening. What is the most important thing
Speaker 1: we can do to lower our breast cancer right now today?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, a lot of things just aren't within our control.
Speaker 2: But something that we can control is just trying to
Speaker 2: lead a healthy lifestyle, so maintaining a good level of
Speaker 2: physical activity, not smoking, and limiting our alcohol intake, and
Speaker 2: maintaining a healthy weight. So these are all things that
Speaker 2: could help. But as I said, we can only control
Speaker 2: so much, and it's kind of just by virtue of
Speaker 2: us having breasts that we're at risk of breast cancer.
Speaker 2: So I think that being breast aware, that's something that
Speaker 2: we say is the best possible prevention. So just regularly
Speaker 2: checking our breasts for any abnormal changes and then following
Speaker 2: any of these concerns up with our GP. And so
Speaker 2: when breast cancer is caught early, the treatments are usually
Speaker 2: much more successful and our risk of the cancer coming
Speaker 2: back after treatment is really reduced. So prevention here is key.
Speaker 1: Breast aware. I love that slogan. Kelly, Thank you for
Speaker 1: coming on healthy.
Speaker 2: Ish, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Folks take Kelly's advice check your breasts, No, you're normal,
Speaker 1: be breast aware. Thank you for tuning into this chat.
Speaker 1: With Kelly. If you enjoyed it, tell us, rate and
Speaker 1: review this episode, subscribe to this podcast. If you do
Speaker 1: have any ideas for any upcoming epps in the lid
Speaker 1: up to Christmas, dm me at Felicity Harley. Also make
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Speaker 1: Soul jump online, bodyansoul dot com dot you grab our
Speaker 1: print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper
Speaker 1: And until next time you listen, hopefully tomorrow, Stay healthy
Speaker 1: ish