Welcome to The Breastcancer.org Podcast, the podcast that brings you the latest information on breast cancer research, treatments, side effects, and survivorship issues through expert interviews, as well as personal stories from people affected by breast cancer. Here’s your host, Breastcancer.org senior editor Jamie DePolo.
Jamie DePolo: Hello, I'm Jamie DePolo, senior editor at Breastcancer.org. I'm podcasting live from the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. I'm joined by Dr. Brooklyn Olumba, a clinical pharmacist in Houston, Texas, and four-year breast cancer survivor who has a BRCA2 mutation.
When she was 28, she was diagnosed with stage IB breast cancer. At the conference, she was part of ASCO Voices, a program that gives people in the oncology community an opportunity to tell their stories. Brooklyn's talk was entitled, “Genetic Testing Saved My Life,” and she's going to share it with us. Brooklyn, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
Jamie DePolo: So, you had genetic testing when you were 25. Why was that? Did you have a strong family history of breast cancer, and had you started breast cancer screening before you had the genetic testing?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: You know, my story to genetic testing is a little bit strange and unique in that I didn't have a strong family history. I had one aunt that was diagnosed with breast cancer and had passed away within five years. We didn't know much about her cancer diagnosis or if she had a genetic mutation, but I had a twin sister who really took that upon herself to go and seek genetic testing because of my aunt's passing. So, once she found out she had a BRCA2 mutation, I then went and tested myself and found out that I had the same one.
Jamie DePolo: Oh, wow. Now, was this your mother's sister?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: My mother's sister, correct.
Jamie DePolo: Did your mother then have testing?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: She did, and she did not have the genetic mutation. No. So, very interesting.
Jamie DePolo: So, do you think it came from your father, then? That's so strange.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: My father actually had not had genetic testing done, at the time, and so, we didn't know if he had any type of genetic mutation.
Jamie DePolo: Okay.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: But it's very interesting how, you know, genetics plays a role and how it can jump different generations.
Jamie DePolo: Sure.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: And certain people can have it. Certain people can't.
Jamie DePolo: Oh, wow. So, I'm assuming, then, so, after you found out you had the mutation, then you started the screening?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Correct. Exactly. Exactly.
Jamie DePolo: Okay.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: And I did screening for three years, and that's when they found my breast cancer early. So, I was diagnosed very early stage.
Jamie DePolo: Okay, and so, your talk, could you summarize what you said for us?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Of course. So, my talk is all about, of course, how genetic testing saved my life, but I found out that I had this genetic mutation that increased my breast cancer risk at age 25, and after that, I was able to be proactive and start annual breast surveillance screenings. So, I had an MRI every single year, and my third year is when they found out, without any sign or symptom, without any lump, that I had breast cancer.
And so, because of that, I was able to have a great outcome. I was able to undergo a chemotherapy that wasn't as harsh as maybe some of the other chemotherapy plans, and still, to this day, four years out, I have no evidence of disease. So, my story is really all about how using genetic testing can help you self-advocate for yourself, start getting screening earlier, so that way, if you do have a breast cancer diagnosis, you can get diagnosed early. Early detection saves lives. So, it's so important.
Jamie DePolo: Excellent. Now, you're a pharmacist, clinical pharmacist. You work in healthcare. From what we hear in our audience, from our audience, there's still a lot of confusion about when to start screening. I know the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force just updated screening recommendations. Me, personally, I think it should've gone farther. That's just me.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Yeah.
Jamie DePolo: But still, people are confused, and so, when you're advocating for this, I know it's a passion of yours, how do you talk to young women? Like, how do they know when to start, and how do they make sense of all this differing information, because it seems like each professional group has a slightly different recommendation?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Of course. You know, and it's overwhelming, and I think some people just give up, and they say, you know what, I can't figure it out, so I'm not going to do anything. But that's not what we need to do. The most important thing and the one thing that I think everybody agrees upon, across the different organizations, is that you have to know your normal.
You have to know what your breasts normally look like and feel like. So, that way, if you see any changes, you can go to the doctor, have screening done. You know, you can advocate for yourself. But with all these changes in the guidelines, and things like that, I think it's easy to get wrapped up in all the wording, but like I said, the most important thing is you have to know what your normal is.
Jamie DePolo: Right. So, if you're a young woman, don't really have any family history, does it make sense I know -- and I'm going to forget which group -- so I apologize, but said every woman should talk to their doctor when they're 25 and just do a risk assessment and then that can help you decide when to start screening. Is that something you would advocate for?
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Oh, of course, and you know, there's so many risk assessment tools out there that pull in different things that might increase someone's risk. Did you have someone in your family that was diagnosed young? Did they pass away within five years of their diagnosis? Are there different types of cancers in your family? Because different ones are linked with certain genetic mutations. So, asking your doctor to do some type of risk assessment for you can be helpful because they can help you navigate that process. But the most important thing is you have to talk to your family. If you don't know the history of who was diagnosed with what, who maybe had genetic testing done, you're not going to be able to arm yourself with the information and have a fruitful conversation with your doctor.
Jamie DePolo: Brooklyn, thank you so much.
Dr. Brooklyn Olumba: Of course. Thank you for having me.
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