LIJ Doctor to Speak at Cancer Conference

LIJ Medical Center obstetrician Jonathan Herman, MD, will be a featured speaker this weekend at a national breast cancer conference in San Francisco.

  This year, the National Cancer Institute predicts that more than 230,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and that nearly 40,000 women will die from the disease.

 Nearly 10,000 responses to Herman’s 25-question survey showed that 90.6 percent of women did not accurately assess their breast cancer risk. For women, knowing their risk of getting breast cancer can help them seek more effective, timely care.

   A majority of African-American, Asian and Hispanic women surveyed underestimated their risk of getting breast cancer and were less apt to get regular screenings for breast cancer. But white women tended to overestimate their risk of breast cancer, which might lead to undue anxiety,  Herman said. 

His study found that approximately 40 percent of women have not talked about their breast cancer risk with their healthcare providers.

  For more information about breast cancer and a person’s risks of getting it, contact the Katz Institute for Women’s Health at (855) 850-5494.