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Breast Cancer
Reconstructive Surgery Advances
New procedures are making surgery less intrusive.
Florida Non-Profits
» fundraisingforacause.com, based in Tampa, founded by Karen Conroy, whose sister had breast cancer. She raised $10,000 in 2007 for breast cancer research.
» flbreasthealth.com, based in Miami Lakes, founded by breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory. Provides door-to-door information in needy communities.
» networkofstrength.org/southflorida, an affiliate of Chicago-based peer support group Breast Cancer Network of Strength, founded in 1978 as Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.
» komen.org, affiliates statewide of Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure, founded in 1982 by Nancy Brinker as a promise to her dying sister.
» fbccrf.org, based in Hallandale, raises awareness and lobbies for public funding.
More Options
Doctors are using new methods, including MRIs to diagnose high-risk patients; digital infrared thermal imaging; less-intrusive surgery for lymph node biopsies; and an oncotype DX test that better predicts whether the patient needs aggressive chemotherapy treatment.
“With breast cancer, we know more about the disease than we’ve ever known,” says Dr. David “Chip” Molthrop, an oncologist with the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute and Hematology & Oncology Consultants, both in Orlando, “and we can treat it at any stage. We have more options available to us than ever.”
