The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:42
You Good morning Las Vegas, and thank you once again for joining me for another episode of the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, it is the month of October, and if you've been tuning in to the last couple of shows, you know that I'm dedicating this month to a conversation about an issue and subject experience very near and dear to me, and it's breast cancer. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so I encourage all the women to get mammograms. Early detection saves lives. I promised you that during the month, we would have a conversation that would include the medical expertise of an oncologist, someone who is well versed in this field, because I didn't want any of the testimony of sharings to come across like it was medical advice. So I'm very pleased to welcome to the show this morning. Dr Matthew Schwartz, who is part of the team at comprehensive cancer centers of Nevada. Dr Schwartz, good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:39
Good morning. Thanks so much for having me.

Unknown Speaker 1:42
Thank you so much for making the time to talk with me. I appreciate it. I am a former Comprehensive Cancer Center, well, actually, not even a former. I'm a current comprehensive cancer centers of Nevada. Patient. I actually saw Dr tobayan Yesterday, earlier this month, actually, to talk about where I am in my journey. So thank you for all that you do. And I was a previous patient of Dr Allison's so and Doctor spots,

Unknown Speaker 2:12
fantastic. Well, I'm glad that you're doing well and and we like to hear positive stories. It's very inspiring, not just for the community, but for the doctors that are helping taking care of you. And it kind of makes our day to hear that our patients are doing well, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 2:28
it's a very special bond, I say to women all the time, the relationship you have with your oncologist, when you find out you're facing breast cancer becomes a very special bond. They take you through your journey. You really are going through a war together. I remember I met doctor, Dr Allison in 2003 when I was first diagnosed, I was 32 and I had chosen doctor spots who became part of the Comprehensive Cancer Center team later on in my medical journey, but when I first met Dr Allison, I declined. I had a lumpectomy. I had I had ductal carcinoma inside to stage zero in my right breast. And so there were three areas that were at risk. They had an 11 o'clock, a nine o'clock and the seven o'clock locations that were being watched. And the seven o'clock turned out to be the location of concern. The other two were not had they either one of them been involved. I was looking at a mastectomy at age 32 So fortunately, they they weren't, and I ended up doing a lumpectomy. And four years later, Dr carcinoma inside two, stage zero returned in the same seven o'clock location, and we did a second lumpectomy, and think we just didn't get clear marked. I don't know. We just didn't get it. It was some crazy stuff that went on. But I got a third diagnosis, and that one was adenocarcinoma stage two a, and it be so began the journey with Dr Allison to I decided to just remove all the tissue. She did a Sentinel. Dr spotted a Sentinel, no biopsy. They checked all the organs. And so began my journey with the adenocarcinoma stage two a and I did chemotherapy and all that stuff. In the previous shows, we've talked a bit about I've talked with African American women, so it's been from that perspective. But I want to make sure we're giving perspective to everyone of various multiple, various cultural backgrounds, because breast cancer has a different effect on different women, and it is. It's just a different journey. Whether you're Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic, what have you. And so we've talked about the triple negative and triple positives, but I'd like to ask you to share everything that you can in this time that we have together about. How breast cancer affects different women, and where we are with treatments and what people should consider?

Unknown Speaker 5:06
Yeah, I think, I think the first thing is it's amazing to hear your your story and that and that you're doing well, is that the first thing that patients should be aware of is that it's often highly curable, and so the journey can be difficult, but if you go for a mammogram and you keep up with your visits, we can often catch things early, and the chance for cure is very high. So so having the big C word a cancer diagnosis isn't necessarily it's not necessarily death sentence, like, like people think it used to be. And so I want people to know that there's hope and that we have good treatments and and then we can get through it together. And I think you know, talking about what you were alluding to, you know, it's such a different journey for different women, depending on where you grew up or where you're from, and you know what kind of history you had in your family of dealing with things like this, but I think the biggest thing is to just advocate for screening, and we know that screening works and that and that if you, if you go for your annual mammograms, you will often find things early and improve your chances of being it

Unknown Speaker 6:17
absolutely early detection saves lives, which is what we always used to push when I was serving and helping working with komen, we often hear a lot that women don't participate in studies. Do you see one group more than another that participates in studies, and how does that impact the research component of treating breast cancer. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 6:42
so it's interesting. You wouldn't guess this, but most children with cancer in this country are actually treated on a study versus with adults, especially including breast cancer. Most patients in the community are not treated on a study, which is kind of interesting how the dynamic works. But we know with children that are treated with cancer on a study, they tend to do better across the board, if they're treated on a study, then if they're not, irregardless of which arm they're in or what treatment they get. And we don't really know why. It just seems to be that when you're enrolled in a study, people kind of one, they look at you more often. You're getting more checkups. You're getting more tests. And number two, you're getting access to kind of cutting edge treatments that you may not have access to Office study. The good news for for people in Las Vegas is that comprehensive cancer centers, which group I'm part of, offers about 170 clinical research studies for all different types of cancer, phase one, phase two, phase three. So we actually offer a lot of studies available for different types of cancer, including breast cancer, so you don't necessarily need to go somewhere else to get the cutting edge treatments. We have them here. I'm

Unknown Speaker 7:59
glad you said that, because a lot of times that I'm at in the community I'll hear people talk about needing Leaving Las Vegas to get care that they need. And I have probably had 20 different surgeries. A lot of my surgeries have been related to my breast cancer journey. I mean, I've had some other off ones, like a tumor on my thyroid, and some, you know, basic things like knee surgeries from meniscus tears and I broke tibia and dislocated my ankle. So, I mean, like, my dad's like, child, please stop. Daddy's getting too old for you to keep having all these surgeries. But I have been fortunate in the breast cancer journey, the big C journey, to get really good care here. And I was part of a study when I went through breast cancer that third time through a partnership that you guys had going on with UCLA, and I think Avastin was the drug at the time that was being studied. I didn't get it. I got the placebo. But, you know, you roll your dice. But to your point, about being seen more frequently, there was a different type of tracking. So for people who are often afraid, especially in communities of color, where there sometimes is a fear about being in a study due to some things that have happened in, you know, the United States historically, there's, you know, reservations about it, but you do get some added attention and maybe some exposure to cutting edge treatments that otherwise you maybe wouldn't, that could make a huge difference. And if it doesn't necessarily make a difference in your life, the ground you can help gain in the in the scientific medical community of understanding what's happening with a diet, with a disease and the treatments that are available that's important,

Unknown Speaker 9:52
you know, absolutely, yeah, to be the most important thing is, is the patients are aware of all their options and communication. So what? Ever treatment that someone decides to do, I just want them to feel like they have all the information. Because you don't want to do the Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, where you make a choice, and then you go back and go, Oh my gosh. I wish I knew about that. I might have did things differently. So I try to make sure that that patients have all the information. And you know, 98% of the time we can give them the best treatment that that they could get here in Las Vegas, but sometimes we do send people out of town. We have very good relationships with UCLA and MD Anderson and all the major cancer centers, but most of the time you don't need to. But I think the most important thing is that I want to make sure that patients understand all their options, and you know the pluses and minuses of each option, and if that includes a clinical trial, great. I'd like them to be aware of it, because I feel like you have a duty so that they know patients know you know what their options are. And if they don't want to do it, that's fine too. You know it's your choice. That's the most important thing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 10:55
absolutely. I want to before we get too far down the road, I want to make sure people understand that we cover the basics. So advice to women who we talk about monthly checks, self checks. Are we still telling women some of the same things that we've been telling them for a long time? Are we still saying to them mammograms should start at age 40. I know I was diagnosed at 32 not that I am an anomaly, because I've met, unfortunately, I've met more, not a lot, but I've met, you know, a handful of women who were 2636 I had a judge Belinda T Harris on earlier this month, and she was 36 at the time that she was diagnosed. So are we still giving women the same advice, or are you guys telling them anything different? In that

Unknown Speaker 11:45
space, the advice depends on who you ask. There are different guidelines. But in general, I think that's the general rule, as we say, start doing annual mammograms at age 40, unless you have a high risk. And what would be a high risk is if you've either had breast cancer before, or you had maybe a first degree family member that had breast cancer at a young age. So,

Unknown Speaker 12:07
Doc, you were saying, if you have breast cancer at a young age, or you were about to talk a little bit more, I think about genetic mutations, can you continue to talk a little more about that space?

Unknown Speaker 12:17
Sure, yeah. So if you have certain genetic mutations, such as the BRCA gene, or there's other genetic mutations that people can get that puts you at a much higher risk of getting breast cancer and other cancers such as ovarian cancer, those would be situations where you want to consider maybe screening even earlier than age 40, depending on on your particular situation, I think if we can just get women overall to start even screening at age 40, as as a general rule, that would be a big first step, because not everyone does that, and so if you're not doing screening, we tend to Find that breast cancers aren't found until you can feel something or have symptoms, and a lot of times, that tends to be a more advanced type of breast cancer, and it's more difficult to treat. So the whole purpose of screening is to find the cancers early, when they're small and highly curable, and try to avoid things like chemotherapy if we don't need to, I think what people need to be aware of is just how common breast cancer is. So, you know, a lot of people worried about things in the environment. We're worried about carcinogens and or radiation, or or or your diet, or all these things that could relate to developing cancer. But just have to be aware breast cancer is so common, it's the average is something like one in eight or one in nine women in the United States will develop a breast cancer in their lifetime. So it's got to be something that really every woman has got to be thinking about as far as screening. I think it

Unknown Speaker 13:55
still continues to blow my mind how common it is, and not just because of how it exponentially impacts families. Next week, I'm going to be talking about it from that angle. So tune in for that, folks, just to hear how it how it is a family disease, really, but the number of people impacted by breast cancer, and how common it is like you know, a friend or a sister, your aunt, your mother, your grandmother. In my family, my mom had five sisters, and I did the Bronco gene test, I think, on my first diagnosis, and it wasn't genetic, because my mother had died from breast cancer four years before my diagnosis, I found my diagnosis on the fluke. I just my mother passed away from metastatic breast cancer that spread to her liver and her bones, and then my dad, sister, my aunt on my dad's side, passed away a few years after my about three four years after my mom from. Had breast cancer that spread to her liver, and that is what prompted me to want to get a mammogram. I did it as a precautionary step, just to have a baseline status in my record. I never thought for a second that it was going to come back as with a report saying you need to find a surgeon and get more stuff done that wasn't what I expected. I just thought I was going to put it on record to know. And then I got this letter saying there's abnormalities, and you need to see find another doctor. And the crazy thing for me was my aunt, my dad's half sister, was the mammographer who did the test. And so I went to Steinberg, and she had to sit on that information. I felt the worst for her, because she had to sit on my information. And when the radiology doctor looked at the results, she said to my aunt, come here, and she showed it to her, and my aunt was like, check it again and check it again and check it again. And the radiology doctor said, this is your niece, right? And she said, Yeah. And then she had to wait, because you couldn't say anything. The patient, doctor, patient, the you know, privacy component. And I got a letter on a Friday night. I got it out of the mail, Doc, on a Friday night, I'd gotten home from work, and I worked at the casino at the time, so I was moving and grooving. And I got home, I think I had just started a new job at the county or whatever it was, but I was in that phase, you know. And I took it out the mail, and I read this letter that said, you need to find a surgeon. Your test is abnormal. And I just froze on a Friday at like, seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and I called my best friend and I said, Oh my god, I got this letter, and my mother had just died four years before.

Unknown Speaker 16:48
Oh man, it's like a bomb,

Unknown Speaker 16:51
and I'm just sitting there on a Friday, there's no one I can call, there's no test I can schedule, there's no follow up. And I call my aunt, and she said, I know I've been waiting for your call. Oh, it was, it was just very Wow. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 17:07
well, see the stars were in alignment. You did the right thing. You probably saved your life.

Unknown Speaker 17:12
I did, you know, do you still to turn and I didn't feel anything? So do you guys still advocate for the self examinations? I always tell people you nobody knows your body more than you do absolutely. You know the changes. The only thing I had was a slight headache, and I don't get I feel like headaches are a sign that something's off, because I don't really get them, not counting like a caffeine headache, because we can all go through caffeine withdrawal if you're a coffee drinker or something, but it was a weird pain on the right, and that's the only thing that I really noticed about that was off, and I just got it as a baseline, but

Unknown Speaker 17:49
Well, good for you. You did usually within Situ cancer, you're not going to feel anything, so the only way you're going to find it is with a mammogram or some kind of scan or an MRI.

Unknown Speaker 18:02
So I want to make sure, I always want to make sure people can find more information. And I don't like to get to the end of the show, and then you're running out of time trying to share social media platforms or spaces where people can learn more. But if you are going through it, is there anything that you ever share with your patients? You can find good information here. You can read this or nutrition tips, exercise tips, meditation. What do you say to people who might be in this space or trying to help a family member cope or help themselves manage? Is there anything that you can give absolutely

Unknown Speaker 18:39
the first place I usually have patients start is our website, because comprehensive cancer centers has got a really nice website. It's www triple cnevada.com, and on our website, you can read more about your type of cancer. We've got resources on there about all types of breast cancer, all types of cancer, including breast cancer, as well as survivorship, education, emotional well being, financial counseling, hereditary cancer quiz. There's a lot of stuff on there, and it just shows you all the different locations we have. We we have 15 different sites all over the valley. You can read about all the different doctors if you've been referred to one or you need one. It's kind of like the first stop. We also are on Facebook. Triple C, Nevada is our is our site on Facebook. So that's a good that's a good place to start. I also like Susan Coleman website, or the American Cancer Society. That's That's probably a good first stop, start for people when they want to learn more,

Unknown Speaker 19:42
I appreciate that those are good places. People talk about diet and the correlation between cancer and diet, antioxidants, oxygen, exercise. What do you say to those things is, I don't know if they're preventive or during. Right after, because a lot of times you'll get diagnosed, and then that's like the trigger to change your life. And you change, like people who get diagnosed with diabetes or whatever, and then her hypertension, you cut your salt, could reduce your sugars. You do these things, but these are things that we should probably be doing anyway. Is there advice to breast cancer patients or to cancer patients in general, about healthy living tips that you would give us

Unknown Speaker 20:26
Sure? Yeah. So the one that everyone always harps on to begin with is, if you smoke, quit smoking, just because that's the single risk factor that probably has the highest risk of developing cancer. It's mainly lung cancer, but also bladder cancers, more specific to breast cancer, most breast cancers, not all, but most breast cancers tend to feed off of estrogen, which is a female hormone and and we know that being obese increases your estrogen levels, and so obesity is a risk factor for not just Breast cancer, for many cancers, including colorectal cancer. But if you're saying, what's the easiest, well, it's not easy. What's one thing that you could do if you're non smoker to decrease your risk, would be losing weight and exercise just because when your body's in a constant state of producing a lot of estrogen, you're going to increase your risk of breast cancer. For sure.

Unknown Speaker 21:19
That is really good to hear. As a woman is getting older, exercise, and as you get older, you're tired. We're so busy. We have all these things going on in our lives. I encourage women to make sure you're carving some time for yourself and consider exercise as part of the self care routine, along with a spa treatment or a massage, or whatever you might do, a facial, or just whatever it is that you may do. But I've also learned the importance of the strength building, because your bones deteriorate, your muscles deteriorate. So it's strength building, we think sometimes, because we're getting out, getting the cardio, we're doing, all that we need to do, and I've learned of late the need to incorporate the weights or some type of strength training as well to condition the body to be stronger and to be healthier also.

Unknown Speaker 22:09
Yeah, absolutely, I agree the 100% and the other one that people never think about is sleeping. And so I think, you know, women are so busy now trying to work and have a family and take care. You know, they end up putting themselves last, and you really need to, you know, I guess, prioritize self care, where trying to have balance in your life between your home work and self care, and take care of yourself, making sure that you're getting enough sleep, you know, limiting alcohol, trying to eat healthy, light exercise, all the things you need to do that will just help you feel better and decrease your risk of getting sick, absolutely for sure.

Unknown Speaker 22:48
Well, you you know, kind of called me out silently because I don't think I get enough sleep. And I was having that conversation with a good friend of mine recently, and she just kind of mentioned one of the things that people don't do, that we could do, is take really deep breaths. And I know we walk around all day feeling like, Oh, I'm breathing, but she talked about the importance of really getting enough oxygen in your blood and getting enough sleep. And I think I am truly guilty of not getting the proper amount of sleep. I'm trying, with my busy life to change my schedule enough to get more sleep. I think that's the one thing I just don't do. Well, I don't get enough sleep. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 23:29
a lot of people don't, especially in Las Vegas, because people

Unknown Speaker 23:31
are working, you know, crazy hours, and we're 24 hour town hours,

Unknown Speaker 23:35
and we're 24 hour town people working at the, you know, in the in the hospitality industry, it's really hard to have a normal schedule, so I see it all the time and but it's super important. It's one thing that we don't talk about, probably enough, is the importance of sleep and diet and exercise. We're so worried about treatments and diagnosis, but it's the one thing that people can do themselves, to help themselves.

Unknown Speaker 24:00
Is there something I know, when I was going through chemotherapy, one of the important things for me, and I people say they don't like to do it, but I drink a lot of water to kind of flush, like in my mind, I was flushing, because people see chemo as we're pumping in all this bad stuff to kill off things, but we're killing the good stuff while we're killing the bad stuff. And so the one piece of advice I always give to people is to let to rest, in the vein of we're talking about sleeping, but if you are a patient and you're going through chemotherapy, getting rest, allowing your body to rest, it was one thing as a busy person that I agreed to and drinking a lot of water. I did a drink a lot of water.

Unknown Speaker 24:46
Yeah, I think that's that's great. So, you know, water helps keep your kidneys going, and your kidneys help, kind of detoxify your body, not just from chemo, but from all sorts of things. And so drinking enough water is super important as a lot. A lot of patients that tell me they have a hard time drinking water, and sometimes they'll add some kind of flavoring to it, or lemon or just so they can, they can find a way to get it down. But especially in Las Vegas, the big issue, because it's so hot and dry here,

Unknown Speaker 25:13
I found that that helped me tremendous. I had a girlfriend who held me very accountable. So I say also Take someone with you to doctor's appointments, because when I was going through it, I mentioned early on that I had a 11 o'clock, nine o'clock and seven o'clock concern. But with my first appointment, I really didn't hear that. To be honest with you, I did not hear that in the conversations that I've had with women the previous shows this month, and just in general, when you are told that the big C is now on your plate. You don't really hear, Well, what's going on with you? And I honestly did not hear that people. I heard breast cancer, and we needed to do some tests, and there was a location, it was later that, once I was through it on the other side and able to process and a little bit calmer, I understood that there were three areas of concern, and if two out of the three had come back positive I was staring at a mastectomy at a really young age, but I didn't hear that early on, so I began to with the additional diagnosis and treatment spaces. I had a friend who would go with me to my doctor's appointments, and she would take notes so that I could understand what I was dealing with and have that information to evaluate later. Is that something you encourage people to just be mindful of, to take notes or to have someone there with you? Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 26:35
say, the more the mayor so, I mean, if you have friends or family that are available to come with a patient. I think that's great, because I noticed, you know, I feel like patients sometimes only hearing a third of what you're saying, just because, like you said, when you hear the big C, your brain kind of shuts off and you just like in panic mode, and it's just a lot of information that you're trying to absorb and things that you know you have no experience with. So it's very helpful to have friends and family there and to take notes, because there's a lot going on and and it's hard to keep it all straight.

Unknown Speaker 27:12
Yeah, there really is Doctor Schwartz, I am grateful for having you on this morning to talk with me about it and to put the scientific facts to this conversation, so that everything that we've talked about in this month breast cancer is very near and dear to me making because I always say it's not just happening to the person that's going through it. It's happening to the family as a whole. It's happening to the husband, to the children, to grandchildren, to sisters, whomever is by your side while you're on this journey, it is affecting them as well as you. And I want to thank you for taking some time out of your busy schedule. I am grateful to to you for your time, and to comprehensive cancer centers of Nevada as an organization, for being one of the places in the value that people can go to get quality care when they're facing this and to help a loved one. So thank you

Unknown Speaker 28:06
absolutely anytime I'm happy to talk to you, and I'm glad that you're spreading the word and helping with awareness and and you're doing good work well.

Unknown Speaker 28:15
Thank you, and most of all to those who are listening. As we mentioned to you, early detection saves lives. So get your mammograms, do yourself exams, be your own best advocate, and just know that there are people out there and resources there to help. And if you catch it early, it's treatable. And you know, I'm seeing 20 year survivors and 30 year survivors. So the earlier that it's diagnosed, it can be beaten, and they're just, you know, there's help. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:44
things are getting better every day, and that's the one thing I like to end every talk on, is that, if you take from when I first started, about 18 years ago, to now, across the board, chances for cure from cancer have increased from about 50% to about 70% in less than 20 years. So we have better detection, we have better treatment. So there is hope out there. Things are getting better, and there, you know, there's light at the end of the tunnel. There is light

Unknown Speaker 29:13
at the end of the tunnel. And on that note, we're going to be at the end of our time and wrap up this week's show. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Stay positive, and we'll talk to you next week. Thanks. Dr Schwartz, thank

Unknown Speaker 29:24
you. Bye, bye, bye. I

Unknown Speaker 29:30
want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almanize Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai