Women's Health

Much of the discussion and debate about breast cancer is currently over issues like screening guidelines, risk, and prophylactic bilateral mastectomies. This focus on risk reduction and early detection can lull us into a false sense of security, suggesting that if we just do this early stuff right we can prevent all breast cancer deaths. But women and men still die from breast cancer even after screening, bilateral mastectomies, “precision medicine,” and targeted therapy! Why? Because we don’t yet know enough about metastases.

The launch of Sage Bionetworks’ Share the Journey breast cancer research app on Monday at Apple’s Spring Forward event was a game-changer in more ways than one.

First and foremost, for the millions of people who have received treatment for breast cancer, it’s a way to use smart phones to better understand and manage the collateral damage of those treatments. And, at the same time, to contribute de-identified data to a larger pool of knowledge that will help breast cancer patients in the future.

Better scientific tools have allowed researchers to learn more about inherited genetic mutations that increase risk or mutations that develop inside of the cancer cell that help fuel its growth. Breast cancer happens to have good examples of both kinds of mutations.