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Dr. Amy Comander | Lifestyle Medicine and Breast Cancer by SurvivingBreastCancer.org
Summary: In this episode, Laura and Dr. Amy Comander, the director of breast oncology and cancer survivorship at MGH Waltham and Newton Wellesley hospital discuss the topic of lifestyle medicine and how to holistically remain healthy during and after cancer treatment. They discuss the flexibility of a patient’s treatment and how doctors often alter plans slightly during the treatment depending on how the patient responds to a specific medicine or treatment plan. Lastly, Dr. Comander describes how her survivorship program was created and her work as a medical advisor to the one in forty non-profit organization.
Topics:
0:03 Introduction
10:22 The flexibility of breast cancer treatment plans
17:04 Finding support during and after treatment
36:07 Lifestyle medicine
42:00 Dr. Comander survivorship program
52:18 Individuals with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and their likelihood of a breast cancer diagnosis
Resources:
Store My Tumor: https://storemytumor.com/
Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Lifestyle-Medicine-Handbook-Introduction-Healthy/dp/1606794132
One in forty: https://oneinforty.org/
Quotes:
Dr. Comander 43:08: Right. I hear this a lot from patients for sure that you look normal, right? They don't feel quite normal inside. And so sometimes that's really hard to navigate. Yeah, but yeah, so I was really for a few years now, I've been really excited about launching my own breast cancer survivorship program for my patients. And I've met Dr. Beth Frates a few years ago, and we've been meeting about this for a while. And so it was really excited to get this started this fall. And I was fortunate to get a number to run for Team Newton Wellesley hospital to raise money for this particular program. And by the way, I don't tell my patients they have to run a marathon, a few asked if they could join the marathon team and I was like, maybe not right now finish chemotherapy first. Certainly, I have some of my patients have really taken up running which is pretty inspiring.
Socials:
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