One of these things is not like the other

Just finished reading a pretty good paper on NIH's site about Breast Cancer Before Age 40 Years written by some folks out of UNC Chapel Hill. To save you the trouble of reading the entire thing, here are some of the highlights:

• Of all the new cases of breast cancer (the ACS estimated 230K for 2011), only 2.4% occur in women under 35 years. That's 1 in 1,500, if any of you out there are the bettin' kind.

Of that 2.4%...

• Twice as many of those women are African American
• Majority come from low socioeconomic status
• Majority also have a "positive family history of cancer"
• And "the combination of obesity, high energy (caloric) intake, and sedentary lifestyle"
• Many are early child-bearers
• Are "the triple-negative phenotype" (estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 negative)
• And are BRCA positive

 Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Now is the time to start playing the lottery, 'cause I meet NONE of that criteria!


The paper goes on to support how important chemotherapy is to the under 40 crowd, because the risk of local recurrence (breast cancer coming back after surgery) is 9X higher and mortality is 39% more likely.

So now you're thinking... C'mon, Kiki, give me some good news. You always give me some good news. And you're right! The good news is, the lifetime breast cancer survival rate for women 30 - 34 years is 76%. Just a few percentage points lower than our more mature counterparts (84% for women 45 - 80 years).

Now who's bored with all this science stuff??? 

Me, too! Here's what we did this weekend...

We went to a beautiful wedding for our friends Candice & Andrew

Where I oh-so-cleverly camouflaged my latest accessory (i.e. mediport) with this fabulous necklace

Where we also  enjoyed the company of these fine people

And danced the night away with the beautiful bride

Then we celebrated Mother's Day with Mom by taking her out to Giorgio's and forcing her to give up her old laptop for this brand new one so that she can actually get online and read this blog.

Wanna see more pics from this weekend? Check 'em out HERE! Wanna see which states have the highest incidence of breast cancer (sorry California and DC)? Check out the American Cancer Society's Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2011 - 2012.

Have a great week!