Breast Cancer Awareness

We all know someone who has either survived or who has not survived breast cancer. This disease affects so many men and women and as a result impacts their families. And since this is Breast Cancer awareness month, I wanted to share an email a friend sent to me that evangelizes a new "HALO" technology.


Background: Kathryn Tunstall, the Chairman of Conceptus, has experienced the diagnosis of breast cancer and its recurrence. Kathryn's fighting spirit and her business skills have led her to be involved in a new company with breakthrough technology for the early diagnosis of breastcancer risk. Thank you to Kathryn for her relentless pursuits in this area for the benefit of us all.


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This is the 22nd anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and yet in 2007, another 200,000 women will develop the disease and over 40,000 will die— virtually the same number as last year…and the year before…and any year since the first National Breast CancerAwareness Month. We don't need additional awareness--we need to use our knowledge of the science of breast cancer to fight it TODAY! It all comes down to screening. Screening has made the difference in the fight against many other cancers, because the best way to curecancer is to find it early. Two great examples: The Cervical Pap Testidentifies the earliest cervical cell changes that can lead to cancer and has been credited with reducing cervical cancer deaths more than70%. The PSA screen measures changes in the level of the biomarker PSAfrom prostate-lining cells that can be a signal that cancer isdeveloping. The screen was recently introduced, and prostate cancerdeaths are already declining. Breast cancer, too, has an early warning sign, the presence of the biomarker ADH in breast ductal cells is aknown pre-cancerous condition. Yet this biomarker is not beingroutinely used to screen women. Why? A primary reason is that untilrecently, the collection of ductal cells was too difficult and toopainful--- cell-collection technology had not advanced enough to make such abreast-cancer screen comfortable and practical. All that has changed,the HALO Breast Pap Test is the technological advance that has been soneeded, to make breast cancer screening non-invasive, rapid andinexpensive. HALO is FDA approved and available in an increasingnumber of physicians' offices.

The HALO Breast Pap test allows the fluid in your breast ducts to becollected non-invasively in a five-minute office procedure, no needlesand no crushing compression like a mammogram. The cells can then beanalyzed by a lab—just like the Cervical Pap Test-- for the presenceof the biomarker ADH, a marker of elevated risk—clinical studiesdemonstrate a 300-400% increased relative risk of breast cancer from afinding of ADH. Just like the Cervical and Prostate cancer screens, apositive HALO test does not mean that you have cancer, but does meanyou need to be monitored more frequently and that you could considerearly interventions. For example, there are drugs that have beenextensively tested and shown to be able to prevent 50-86% of cancerfrom developing in high-risk women. We also know that if we findcancer early, Stage 0 or Stage I, the survival rate is 100%. Problemis, the tumors that are detected by mammography or physical breastexam are typically already 8-10 years old and have often developed theability to spread and be deadly. Mammography and physical examinationsare just not sensitive enough to find smaller, earlier tumors. Howeverthere is more advanced imaging technology that can. Magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) is more effective at finding these small, early-stagetumors, but is very costly and requires specialized equipment whichmakes it impractical for a screen. In women already screened by HALOand identified to be at high risk, however, MRI can be used tofacilitate life-saving early tumor detection and intervention.Don't be lulled into a false sense of security because you do not haveany of the publicized risk factors for breast cancer. The fact is, 70%of the time breast cancer occurs in women who have no known riskfactors, other than age. I was not deemed to be at high risk usingthese risk factors. In fact, my calculated risk was lower than average. Yet I developed breast cancer—twice!

The first time, I wasdiagnosed by mammography just one year after a "clear" mammogramcontinued to place me in the low-risk category. When I was finallydiagnosed, I had a stage 2-C tumor with the "kicker" of massiveover-expression of a gene that made my prognosis even more negative.One thing I know for sure, on the way to forming a malignant tumor, mybreast ductal cells passed though the stage where ADH was present, thedetection of which alone would have categorized me as high risk and acandidate for preventative treatments and use of better diagnostics,that might have found my tumor early. And that may have saved me froma double mastectomy, a long recovery from breast reconstructioncomplicated by radiation therapy, and cardiovascular damage fromchemotherapy. And I am one of the lucky ones-- I survived.

Most of you know that I have been deeply involved in women's healthissues for many years. As the CEO and now the Chairman of Conceptus,Inc, my focus has been on bringing better healthcare options to womenthrough the development of new technology. My two bouts with breastcancer made me even more dedicated to this cause. And it is very,very personal. Last year, my college-age daughter asked me whethershe is was at such high risk of breast cancer due to my history thatshe should consider some very big lifestyle changes. Immediately I knew what I had to do, it was so clear: Without the HALO Breast PapTest my daughter would have no objective way to make these major health decisions. Her question came at a time when I had just been introduced to the NeoMatrix, the Irvine, CA-based company that developed the HALO Breast Pap Test.I realized that NeoMatrix is doing something so important in breast cancer, that I could not say "no" to their request for help.

I joined NeoMatrix's board, and we are working to put HALO into the office of every physician who provides basic healthcare for women.The power of women help me beat cancer. Many of you, my women friends and family members, gathered around me and helped me heal. I am asking for your help again. Help me harness the power of women to getthe word out about the HALO Breast Pap Test. We can not afford to allow HALO to be adopted in the same slow, laborious way that has plagued so many other medical advances--too many women are dying. I have confidence that when women learn about an advance in healthcareand demand access to it, the medical community responds.

Send this email to every woman in your contact file. Ask your friends to send the email to their friends, and on and on….If the legend is true,we're just six degrees of separation from every woman in the country,and they all need help managing their risk of breast cancer. And besure to review NeoMatrix's website. Information on the extensivescientific and clinical foundation of the test is available as well asa searchable list of physicians who currently offer HALO. Just key in"HALO Breast Pap Test" on Google, or www.neomatrix.com. If there is not yet a physician in your area, and you are not comfortable referring yourself for the HALO Test (which is your right!), print theinformation from the website and take it to your personal physician. Help your physician provide you with better healthcare. Let this be the last year that we are content with just building awareness of this terrible scourge—let's do something about it---NOW!



- Kathryn