Transcript from the Afternoon Show 6PR
19 December 2001

Gemma: I've got 'em.

Harvey: So you have.

Gemma: Certainly do.

Harvey: Have we got your attention, I hope we have. Thanks to Andrew Green for the 1'o' clock news and now we're going to talk about breasts, though not in the light-hearted fashion perhaps I might have flagged.

Gemma: Well, you know it's a serious thing I mean breast cancer is a terrible, insidious, nasty disease and it's a killer and we all know that, but apparently this time of the year sparks an increased breast awareness for Australian women. This is the time I guess with summer coming up, we start to bear the bodies, we look for the bathers and think it's maybe time to have a check of the body to see that everything's going the way it should.

Harvey: To tell us a little bit more we've got Dr Peter Goodwin on line. Dr Peter Gooodwin radiologist Breast Imaging end of year.. what is he? ...hang on a sec that doesn't make sense.. he's a radiologist we know that.

Gemma: He is. He's a very smart man who knows more about breasts than I do.

Harvey: There you go

Gemma: And he hasn't got any breasts of his own, I'm assuming.

Harvey: Peter where are you… from, let's get this all cleared up first as we welcome you to the program.

Dr Goodwin: I will, hi, thanks very much Gemma and Harvey, thank you.

Gemma: Tell us, Peter, what is this, why is it that at the end of the year that we women start to look and see if every thing's going the way it should be with our bodies, particularly with our breasts?

Dr Goodwin: Oh, I think it's something that we all do to some extent I suspect don't we? Coming up towards the end of the year maybe a problem starts playing up a little bit, it's been a niggling problem in winter and now that the costume and bathers are coming out we perhaps want to get it sorted out. I mean, summer's coming up, the kids are going to be leaving school soon for the holidays and it's nice to get these worked out beforehand.

Gemma: Now is it more likely in all realism, in all reality is it more likely that a woman is going to find something at the end of the year than she would at the middle of the year. I mean, is there any sort of cyclical thing to it?

Dr Goodwin: No, there isn't any at all really, there's been no trend demonstrated of any significance between times of the year and the appearance of breast cancers, but I think its more a social issue, isn't it, that we, you know, feel there's something, a certain time of the year, that we'd like to get things sorted out and perhaps that's the time.

Harvey: Tell us about Breast Imaging Peter, you're down… I know that you're the local representative if you will, local obviously down in Cottesloe way.

Dr Goodwin: Well, we have our rooms down, the practice down in Cottesloe, is solely devoted to investigating breast problems in terms of the imaging and biopsy side of things, so we have patients referred to us that have got a breast problems and need to be sorted out. We don't do regular screenings, that's the government's state owned program, which is separate.

Harvey: Now tell us this Peter, and I do know someone who was affected by this and who actually died at a very early age because of breast cancer. This particular individual was (I know it sounds crazy) but this particular individual was too frightened to go and have an examination because she was afraid that...

Dr Goodwin: …that there was something actually there.

Harvey: Yes. How do you get around that?

Dr Goodwin: Well that's a difficult thing I don't think we can get around as such, I think it's up to the patient to work through and maybe if it's that sort of extent to seek some counselling or some advice in some form, and probably I think the GP's the first line at that stage, because we really only see patients when they've been referred on to us. But it is a problem with a lot of women, but we get the opposite also, I mean that there are some women who are very anxious about even very minor things in the breast.

Gemma: That's a question I wanted to ask, I mean .. it's 'a mammogram a year for women over forty'. I mean I'm a long way from forty, yay. But what women were told, to self examine, if there is a problem is it likely going to be picked up by someone like me who really doesn't have a clue? I know that you can get your sheet from your GP and the directions from the chemist and all that sort of thing but is it that obvious when something is wrong?

Dr Goodwin: I guess the key is where something is wrong over a number of cycles in younger women, and that's why the advice we usually give to younger women who come through the practice is that they really should check the same time every month and it's preferable to do it just after your period because it's at that stage when a lot of the hormonal effects on the breast have started to subside and if there is a persistent lump in it's likely to be still hanging around, than all those hormonal changes earlier in the cycle.

Gemma: Because it is rare, well, not rare but it is less common for women under thirty or so to get breast cancer, isn't it?

Dr Goodwin: Oh, definitely, yes. It's an age-related disease. The older you get the higher your likelihood you are to develop breast cancer.

Gemma: Why is that?

Dr Goodwin: Oh, I think it's all part of the cells of the body breaking down. I mean there are a number of genetic things they've found and so on but without getting too technical it is an aged disease, as you get older the incidence increases.

Harvey: And I'm not making light of the subject at all but it's a fact, isn't it, that a lot of doctors will encourage women to encourage their partners to help in detecting any lumps that might be there.

Dr Goodwin: Well I think the idea is that if you're examining yourself regularly all the time you may not notice subtle changes that develop over a period of months. Whereas a partner who maybe does it once a month or once every two months might say 'hey, that wasn't there two months ago'.

Gemma: Right.

Dr Goodwin: But the other thing that's important for younger women and this is very important in terms of the screening program is the screening programs only starts at 40.

Gemma: Right

Dr Goodwin: And the only way of that a younger women is going to detect any significant abnormality in the breast is basically by self examination. Because she'll only probably go to the doctor once a year for a regular check-up otherwise she's basically healthy and so the only way she's going to pick up a cancer early is to find it early ...herself.

Gemma: Right. It's a difficult thing, isn't it?

Dr Goodwin: Yes. And this is where this interesting research is coming up that only about a third of women actually self examine, are actually self examining themselves on a regular basis.

Gemma: Yes. Maybe it's something that if you don't know what you're doing you can bowl along to the GP for the first time, get her to give you a crash course in breast self examination and away you go

Dr Goodwin: Yes. And as you said there are a number of cards and pamphlets put out and there are a number of websites you can go to as well now that have information on breast cancer.

Harvey: Yes, very good advice, thanks for joining us Peter on the afternoon program.

Dr Goodwin: Okay, thanks.

Harvey: Thanks Dr Peter Goodwin and Peter is one of the state's most eminent breast radiologists, he heads up the breast imaging clinic Breast Imaging.

Further chat about breast cancer, talkback by two callers with personal experiences of breast and other cancer.