SPRINGFIELD — In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the City Council’s Health and Human Services subcommittee met with representatives from Baystate Medical Center on Oct. 6 to learn about their efforts in combatting the disease.
The meeting was convened at a time when one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their life and Black women are 40% more likely to die from the disease, according to a September report from the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
“I want to call this meeting together because this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I wanted to get a good feel of where Baystate Medical is now for treatment and what you have for resources,” said At-Large City Councilor Brian Santaniello, who chairs the Health and Human Services committee. “As we all know, there’s no cure for cancer. It can come back at any time.”
The committee spoke with the Baystate representatives about several factors relating to breast cancer, including how to catch it early on, how cost of care and nutrition play a role throughout the process and how the disease impacts those who survive it.
According to Holly Mason, the section chief for breast surgery at Baystate Health, a major focus of the hospital’s efforts is intervening early by making sure patients are getting to their mammograms on schedule.
She shared that this effort is part of a growing trend across the country known as de-escalation, where doctors, nurses and surgeons are trying to avoid treatments that aren’t helpful to patients.
“The idea is if you catch cancer early, maybe we can catch it before you need all these extensive treatments,” Mason said. “Let’s find these patients early, identify them early, make sure that when we get their interventions, they’re the right size for the disease process that we’re seeing.”
Mason argued that cost of care, the overburdening of primary care physicians and the fear some patients have when it comes to treatments are some of the obstacles Baystate and other hospitals are facing when identifying and treating breast cancer.
Mammograms are usually covered under basic insurance, but the costs of extensive treatment can be a heavy burden on patients depending on their living situation and what their insurance covers.
Additionally, the lengthy process of obtaining health insurance or other statewide assistance can cause unwanted delays when patients need treatment as soon as possible before the cancer gets worse.
“I think in terms of disparities, we then get into the issue related to cost of care and what burdens our patients can withstand with the current insurance environment that we live in,” Mason said. “I think that makes it a little bit more complex, especially in our high-risk patients.”
Still, because of organizations like Rays of Hope, Baystate has seen a huge influx of people — particularly in October — seeking mammograms to try and get ahead.
“I think the word is out,” Mason said.
Part of the subcommittee discussion revolved around the mortality rate for African American women and what Baystate is doing to help the immigration community.
Medical oncologist Bachir Sakr said the high mortality rate among Black people with breast cancer it is in part due to genetics and also partially because triple-negative breast cancers in African American women don’t respond as well to chemotherapy as other races.
There’s also the possibility of discrepancies in screenings due to socioeconomic status, according to Sakr.
“It’s multifactorial,” Sakr said.
As for the immigration community, Baystate representatives said their health centers have done a great job of using interpreters to communicate with patients who have a language barrier.
Tyonne Hinson, a nurse and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Baystate, said the community health centers have specific clinics that are focused on the immigrant population in the area.
“We’re really focused on ensuring that their needs are met, not only from a linguistic perspective, but also culturally, from a perspective of cultural congruent care,” Hinson said.
The representatives at the meeting also talked about the anxiety some survivors face when they are reacclimating themselves to life after surviving the cancer. Cindy Sheridan Murphy, a co-founder and executive director of Each Moment We’re Alive Cancer Support Network, was a triple-negative breast cancer survivor who found it difficult to find her identity again following her treatments.
She said she could not go back to her job as a dental hygienist, so she had to reinvent herself, and a lot of others must do the same.
The staff at Each Moment We’re Alive, which functions as a nonprofit, uses different mechanisms to support individuals and families affected by cancer through emotional, educational and navigation assistance.
“I’m like that square pin trying to fit into that round hole, and I think that’s where a lot of fear comes in, too, is not only am I going to live, what’s going to happen to me next, [where] my tenure is going to be, but how am I going to survive, and what am I going to do,” Sheridan Murphy said. “And that’s why Each Moment We’re Alive offers a lot of after-care help.”
Although progress is being made in treating and pinpointing breast cancer, much still needs to be done to bring more awareness. Rawad Elias, the chief of the department of medicine, hematology oncology at Baystate, said Baystate is bringing more clinical trials to the Springfield community so the area can have a more accurate representation of who is affected by breast cancer in the region.
Mason added that there’s also a research initiative through Rays of Hope where breast cancer patients can enroll in donating some of their breast tissue for future research. She said around 1,500 patients have participated in this initiative so far.
On the city side of things, Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton Harris said Springfield will highlight individuals throughout October who have had breast cancer or are recovering.
The goal is to have as much outreach as possible.
“That’s a part of our outreach to say early detection saves lives,” Caulton Harris said. “We want to make sure that we are absolutely looking at our health care systems that we have and making sure women can access them.”
Readers can watch the full subcommittee meeting on the Focus Springfield YouTube channel.
