President and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation
Susan Love, M.D. is a breast surgeon, medical researcher, and the president and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation in Pacific Palisades, California. Her non-profit foundation’s goal is ‘To end breast cancer in the next ten years.’ (Last year, more than 200,000 women in the U.S. developed breast cancer, and more than 40,000 women died of the disease.) Dr. Love (www.dslrf.org) is also the author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2005), the updated fourth edition of her best-selling guide. Here, she discusses her life’s work, along with advances in research and treatment.
HL&S: How important is lifestyle in preventing breast cancer?
Dr. Love: It’s paramount, and the research shows that regular exercise, especially for pre-menopausal women, can confer preventive benefits. At least three hours a week of aerobic exercise is recommended. Other lifestyle habits I recommend include eating a low-fat diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
HL&S: What’s your self-care regimen like?
Dr. Love: I started running when I turned 50. I have run three marathons. I also swim three times a week and I meditate every morning. I focus on my breathing and say ‘OM’
I learned transcendental meditation many years ago. It helps focus and energize my mind. I am also very careful about keeping my weight down, because post-menopausal weight gain increases breast cancer risk.
HL&S: Are researchers getting any closer to discovering breast cancer’s cause?
Dr. Love: We still don’t know how breast cancer starts or how to stop it. We do know, however, that nearly all breast cancer starts in the lining of the milk ducts or the attached lobules.
I believe the best way to understand and eradicate breast cancer is to look at where the problem begins, in the milk ducts. My foundation is dedicated to eradicating breast cancer before it starts rather than to finding a cure.
HL&S: Research seems to be making new inroads into understanding this disease.
Dr. Love: We used to think that there were two kind of cancers. New data indicates that there are six different kinds. We are studying the patterns of these six cancers and it appears that they react differently to different treatments. This means that we now have the ability to prescribe more appropriate types of treatment than ever before. Thus, we can help more women and hurt less patients. More good news: Treatments like the drug Herceptin, which targets women who have a mutation in the HER2Neu gene (about 30 percent of women have this) mean that we have improved the survival rate of 30 percent of breast cancer patients. Researchers are continually developing more tests and drugs that can help save breasts, and lives.
By Kyle Roderick
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