House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Transcript—The program originally aired on CNN: October 8, 2005 - 08:30AM ET

Doctors On The Frontlines Of Breast Cancer; Weight Loss Camp Helps Kids; Tommy Thompson Discusses Daughter's Cancer; Video Game May Help Kids Lose Weight

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: And just in the last few months, researchers revealed ways women can help prevent and survive breast cancer. This year, for example, a new study showed exercise, as little as an hour a week, can improve survival rates. In May, researchers found a low-fat diet reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 24 percent in the post-menopausal women that they studied. And recent studies have shown some high-risk women can benefit from taking the drugs tamoxifen or raloxifene to prevent certain breast cancers.

Here to bring us up to date on the latest in treatments and prevention is Dr. Marisa Weiss. She's a radiation oncologist, specializing in breast cancer. She's also the founder of Breastcancer.org.

Thanks so much for joining us, doctor.

DR. MARISA WEISS, BREAST CANCER SPECIALIST: Thanks for having me. Thank you.

GUPTA: Listen, a lot of interest and focus on prevention right now. What do you as a doctor tell your high-risk patients or other patients that they should do to try and prevent breast cancer?

WEISS: To stay physically active, shoot for three to four hours a week, try to get your weight as close to your ideal body weight as possible. No smoking. And sometimes those medications, tamoxifen, raloxifene, some of the aromatase inhibitors can be helpful.

And for women who are at increased risk, high risk for breast cancer, maybe because of a breast cancer gene abnormality, those women may want to pursue more aggressive treatments like prophylactic removal of the breasts, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.

GUPTA: You know, lots of specific questions coming in, lined up for you. Let's start with one from Carol in Indiana, who wants to know this. "What are the positives and negatives of digital versus traditional mammograms?"

And doctor, a new study might have confused some women as to which they should be getting. Digital or the other one? What do you say?

WEISS: Well, mammography is a picture of the breast. And it can be recorded on film, which is regular mammography. Or it can be recorded on a computer, which is the digital mammography.

The recent studies showed that for women who are 50 years old and younger, or for women who have really dense breast tissue, that the digital mammography may be better. And it's better because the images are clearer. You can zoom in on various areas that may be of concern without taking additional pictures. And also, they can be read by other radiologists maybe at a different location. And the computer itself can do an extra check.

They are both - both can be done with very high quality. Digital mammography is only available in some places. It's becoming more and more available to women.

GUPTA: That's good advice. And so, digital mammography especially for women under the age 50, may be the best bet if you can get it at a hospital that's close to you.

We're talking to Dr. Marisa Weiss. Lots of good information on breast cancer. Stay where you are. More HOUSECALL coming up after the break.

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GUPTA: And finding out you have cancer of any type is staggering, but tests to determine the type of breast cancer you have are getting better in allowing doctors to use more targeted treatments with better results.

And one of those doctors is Dr. Marisa Weiss. She's a breast cancer specialist, also co-author of the book called Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

And doctor, we're moving on to treatment now. We just talked about prevention. Dave in Ohio has this question. "My wife has breast cancer which metastasized to her liver. Doctors used radiofrequency ablation to destroy the tumor. With follow-up chemo she is in complete remission. What advances are there for breast cancer that has spread or metastasized?"

And first of all, doctor, maybe you can tell everybody what radiofrequency ablation is, and who might be the best candidate for that?

WEISS: Well, it's great that his wife is doing well. Radiofrequency ablation is a technique that gets rid of cancer cells in a specific spot. In this case, her liver.

And in chemotherapy, there are advances every single day. We have a whole list of medications that we can offer people right now in the clinic. And new discoveries are happening within chemotherapy and targeted therapies, where the cancer specifically is targeted. And we try to spare the normal tissue around. That gives us the most benefit with the fewest side effects.

GUPTA: OK, and let's keep going. Same topic now. Sally in Arizona wants to know this: "What information can you provide on breast cancer tumors that have negative hormone receptors?"

And doctor, first of all, what does that mean exactly? And how do you treat those cancers differently? A lot of women hear that they have negative hormone receptors. What does that mean?

WEISS: Well, breast cancer cells may have little receptors where they listen out for what estrogen and progesterone have to say. About two-thirds of breast cancers have receptors, either for estrogen or progesterone. And about a third don't.

The women without - whose cancers are without the hormone receptors - do best with chemotherapy. The women who have - whose cancers have hormone receptors, estrogen and progesterone receptors, or one or the other - do best with anti estrogen therapy, like the aromatase inhibitors or like tamoxifen.

GUPTA: OK. We're talking with Dr. Marisa Weiss all about breast cancer. Coming up, taking a stand and fighting for your health.

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GUPTA: Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder of the educational web site Breastcancer.org, is talking with us about breast cancer.

And doctor, you're someone who talks about better doctor-patient communication when it comes to women who suspect that they have breast cancer. You also just heard the story of Tommi Thompson.

What do you tell women to make sure they're getting the treatment that they need?

WEISS: Well, I think there's - everyone out there - there's only one of you. Your life is precious. It's a gift. And it's our job as women to protect and cherish our lives. And we bring our doctors on to help us do that.

If you feel like something's not right, something's changed, something's different, bring it to your doctor's attention. And make sure they take it seriously. And sometimes you have to push just to make sure that you evaluate it further.

A mammogram, an ultrasound, sometimes an MRI scan, a biopsy as needed. And it's important to share your family history with your doctors.

GUPTA: You know, we spend so much time doing things like looking for a home and doing all our real estate research, I'm always amazed that people don't spend that sort of diligence with their own bodies. Really good advice, Dr. Weiss. Thanks so much for being with us today. Really good advice on an important topic, breast cancer. Thanks for your time.

Also, coming up on HOUSECALL, one woman's story of living with breast cancer. Stay tuned for that.

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GUPTA: For more information on breast cancer, check out Breastcancer.org. And if you're looking for alternatives, click onto www.breastcancertrials.org. This web site will make it easier to find trials that might be a good fit for you.

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Thanks for watching. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Stay tuned now for more news on CNN.