Local oncologist discusses the reality of disease
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S., aside from skin cancers. It accounts for about 30% of all new female cancers each year.
For women in Gallup, having to go to the hospitals in Farmington or Albuquerque to receive breast cancer treatment sounds daunting and may be unfeasible. But thanks to three female doctors at the New Mexico Cancer Center, located at 2240 College Dr. in Gallup, they can now receive care closer to home.
Dr. Katherine Sanchez, a medical oncologist and native New Mexican, moved back to the state in 2022 to serve women in Albuquerque and Gallup. She works alongside Dr. Sophia Palacio and Dr. Annette Fontaine. The three women host a clinic specifically focused on breast cancer in Gallup on Wednesdays.
“Breast cancer care does take a lot of coordination,” Sanchez said. “It usually takes a multidisciplinary team, and so we’ve set that up as a clinic in Gallup so that we have radiation oncology and medical oncology there together at least every Wednesday.”
Doctors at the clinic treat other cancers, and women diagnosed with breast cancer can go into the clinic on other days besides Wednesday, but Wednesdays are when the breast cancer clinic is held.
Patients can come in for treatment and “Women’s Care Wednesdays,” where women can gather and discuss a variety of topics related to cancer survivorship and wellbeing.
“Women kind of always practice this generational self neglect, where you take care of everybody else until you can’t take care of yourself,” Sanchez said. “I think one of the major things that gets missed in survivorship is learning self care, and some of that is teaching self care.”
Women’s Care Wednesdays topics include domestic violence, budgeting, self care, and any other topics the women may believe they need support in. They also do crafting activities, giving guests a chance to mingle and connect.
The clinic treats other cancers that can be scheduled throughout the week, but Wednesdays are dedicated to breast cancer.
The doctors want to clarify and show what breast cancer treatment looks like today. Sanchez said every woman’s breast cancer journey is different.
“Breast cancers are like fingerprints, they’re all a little bit different. So it is hard to compare one woman’s experience to another’s,” she said.
Depending on the stage the cancer has reached, treatments include different types of surgeries or therapies, such as hormone, radiation, targeted, or immunotherapy. Chemotherapy is also an option, but one that has become less common.
“I think [in media] we all see young women who are affected by breast cancer and get chemotherapy and lose their hair,” Sanchez said. “And it’s very impactful. But the reality is breast cancers really peak in the fifth, sixth, and seventh decades of life. It’s actually more common as we get older.”
Sanchez said nowadays, chemotherapy is usually a last resort for cancer treatment that is used for cancers that aren’t responding to hormonal treatment.
Most breast cancers are driven by the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. While chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells, radiation therapy uses high-energy rays to damage the cancer’s DNA, preventing them from dividing and growing. Hormone therapy blocks the overproduction of these hormones, and can serve as a way to kill the cancer. And immunotherapy uses the immune system to fight off the cancer.
Most women get surgery before they begin their personalized treatment plan. For the early stages of breast cancer, only a lumpectomy is needed. A lumpectomy removes the tumor and a margin of healthy tissue. A mastectomy is typically only used for the more severe stages where the cancer has spread to a wider area, such as both breasts.
Lumpectomy and mastectomy surgeries are still only performed at hospitals in Albuquerque, such as the Presbyterian Hospital or the Lovelace Medical Center.
Ultimately, the type of treatment a woman receives often depends on what stage of breast cancer she has. The focus in cancer care has shifted to trying not to overtreat the woman.
The norm is that most women are treated without chemotherapy and treated with increasingly more conservative treatment, because they don’t want to overtreat women,” Sanchez said. “They’re doing more breast conservation surgery, which is lumpectomies.”
Sanchez said about 10 years ago a woman would undergo about seven weeks of radiation therapy after a lumpectomy. Today, that number has dwindled to about 5-15 days of treatment.
“Most women are treated with non-chemotherapy treatments even if they have stage 4 cancer because the target therapies have gotten so much better over the last years,” Sanchez said. “Those improvements have just improved rapidly, so most people are able to live normal lives and most people wouldn’t know that they have a stage four diagnosis. They have their hair, and go to work full time, and ultimately have a pretty controlled disease, and are often only seeing their doctor once every couple of months, like every three months.”
Once a woman is done with treatment, they usually have to get on preventative medication, which usually takes the form of a pill they have to take for the next 5-10 years.
Breast cancer, from diagnosis to recovery, is a long journey. But thanks to the doctors in Gallup, quality care and compassionate support may be closer than survivors think.
The Gallup Cancer Center is open from 8 am – 5 pm Monday through Friday. To book an appointment call (505) 726-2400 or visit their website at www.nmcancercenter.org.
