Individual advocates and larger organizations offer hope as they help us understand what future treatments are in the pipeline.
PUBLISHED February 19, 2018
Martha lives in Illinois and was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in January 2015. She has a husband and three children, ranging in age from 12 to 18, a dog and a lizard.
Cancer advocates amaze me every single day. I recently visited the website of a metastatic breast cancer advocate who attended Living Beyond Breast Cancer's annual metastatic conference last year as a Hear My Voice (HMV) volunteer. Although the conference was nearly a year ago (the next one is at the end of April, find out more at http://www.lbbc.org/programs-events/2018-conference-metastatic-breast-cancer-0 ), the HMV advocates have kept in touch. So, when she told us that her site was up and running, I went straight to my computer.I am a sucker for scientific information. I follow a variety of cancer researchers and organizations that focus on metastatic breast cancer, notably Living Beyond Breast Cancer, Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance, Metastasis Research Society, Theresa's Research Foundatio, and Metavivor, among so many others, as well as government research entities such as the National Institutes of Health. Let's just say that I like to know what's happening, which makes sense because for metastatic breast cancer, where for the last two decades the annual number of deaths from the disease in the U.S. has remained steady at about 41,000, information can be the difference between life and death. This thirst for knowledge is not unique to me. In both private and public spaces, those of us with metastatic breast cancer aren't complaining; we're talking about new research, treatment protocols, genetic testing and so many other things.
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