Your best life can come with your ‘breast’ effort

For women (and a few men), their “breast” effort can spell the difference between life or death, pain or pleasure.

“The reason is that one out of four women in the Philippines will develop breast cancer,” says Dr. Norman San Agustin, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons whose successful practice in the US was dedicated to breast cancer.

 “It is so painful to see women die from a disease that is 100-percent curable,” laments San Agustin, who was the immediate past chairman of the Comprehensive Cancer Care Program and the Breast Cancer Program at Saint Clare’s Hospital, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center affiliate satellite in New Jersey.

The breast surgeon, who established the Asian Breast Center (ABC) in Makati, was the special guest at a Bulong Pulungan press forum at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Over lunch, he counted the number of women in his table and frankly told them that statistically, one of them will have breast cancer.

“That’s how common it is. It is 100-percent curable but only if it’s in its early stages, so it’s less expensive and less painful. But if you let it go, then it’s expensive, painful, and you die. Breast cancer is the No. 1 killer among women. It used to be lung cancer, but now breast cancer has taken over,” stressed San Agustin, who returned to the Philippines last year despite his successful US practice because, of “a rare opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of so many women who have or will develop breast cancer in the Philippines.”

“Work here is difficult but rewards are priceless.”

Helping San Agustin in this cause is his team of highly trained Filipino doctors including Dr. Sammy Ang, Dr. Ed Santos and Dr. Max Basco as well private citizens including business leaders Ramon del Rosario Jr. and Jose E.B. Antonio, and Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia.

San Agustin, who has 46 years of experience in medicine and surgery, says that the avoidable deaths due to breast cancer is the reason he set up the Asian Breast Center, the only free-standing clinic dedicated only to the treatment of breast diseases. The center is also involved in charity work through an entrepreneurial model of “For-profit-for-charity.” The profits from the unit will go to its network of partner hospitals for breast cancer screenings and treatments for indigent women, so they can also have access to quality healthcare. The first beneficiaries of the center are the indigent patients of De La Salle University hospitals.

Dr. Norman San Agustin at the Bulong Pulungan press forum at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Photo by Joanne Rae M. Ramirez

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More shocking revelations we had to digest: of the one out of every four Filipinas who get it,  “half of them will die and 70 percent of those who have died, died without treatment.”

“Why is this so? Well, one of the reasons is economy, the other one is technology, the third one is logistics, and last one is myth,” says San Agustin.

There are only 721 public hospitals and 1,075 private facilities in the Philippines to serve a population over a hundred million.

“All 70 percent of people in the Philippines live in poverty. For them, quality health is largely unattainable. But breast cancer does not discriminate. And without early diagnosis or treatment, Filipino women will continue to suffer and die. Prevention is a key thing. The second is early diagnosis and treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment will save lives and money,” emphasizes San Agustin.

“They say when you plan to die within five years, you just stop having your mammograms. Age doesn’t matter. Age doesn’t mean anything. It’s your lifestyle, how you function, quality of life is important.”

Unusual growths may be detected by mammogram, ultrasound, breast imaging and MRI. But ultimately, you have to see a good doctor to interpret the results because San Agustin says some women who had a mammogram the previous year suddenly find themselves with breast cancer.

Some women fear diagnostic tests because they just don’t want to know. “Because they think that when you develop breast cancer, you lose three things — you lose your breast, your identity as a woman, and you lose your life,” San Agustin says with understanding.

But there’s good news.

“This is no longer true, you don’t have to lose your breast. You don’t lose your dignity because you still have your breast. Looks and survival are now together,” San Agustin stresses. There are also treatments that take the place of 33 sessions of radiation.

“You don’t lose your life, you can go home and go back to work. You don’t get chemotherapy; you don’t get any radiation therapy. It’s just a totally different lifestyle,” he says.

ABC offers a new and innovative radiation treatment called Brachy therapy that allows a single dose of radiation that is equivalent to 33 radiation sessions, San Agustin says. Photo from asianbreastcenter.com

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The incidence of breast cancer in the US is one out of every eight women, reveals San Agustin.

Why are Filipinas more likely to get breast cancer? San Agustin says Filipinas have “dense” breasts, which make detection of lumps more difficult.

“Therefore, very often they end up having breast cancer detected in the later stage,” points out San Agustin, a strong advocate for a multidisciplinary approach in the management of breast cancer and who has been recognized by the “Best Doctors” ranking service for breast surgery.

He also debunks certain myths that if one has no family history of breast cancer, one won’t get it.

 “About 80 percent of women with breast cancer are the first ones to develop breast cancer in their entire family so diseases in family history is only about 10 to 20 percent. So, 80 percent will develop breast cancer without a family history.”

So get yourself screened and bring the results to a competent doctor.

“We have to break the cycle of fear about breast cancer with awareness, correct information, and the appropriate treatment. Most recent statistics show that the survival rate for very early detected breast cancer is 99 percent,” San Agustin reveals with a smile. 

Your breast effort should begin now — if they haven’t yet.

(The Asian Breast Center is on the eighth floor of Centuria Medical Makati, Kalayaan Ave. cor. Salamanca St., Poblacion, Makati City, with tel. nos. 863-0616 to 17 and 0917-1273278.)