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Community Corner

Jefferson Hospital Opens New Floor at Breast Health Center

Warminster native and breast cancer survivor Caity Buck participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony that also featured Eagles owner Christina Lurie and safety Kurt Coleman.

In the ongoing fight to tackle breast cancer, Jefferson University Hospital, teaming up with the Philadelphia Eagles, unveiled then ew Jefferson-Philadelphia Eagles Breast Health Center Tuesday.

The goal of the center is to improve accessibility for breast cancer patients by having all necessary doctors available in one central location.

On hand for the dedication was Christina Lurie, wife of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, along with Eagles Safety Kurt Coleman, and Warminster native Caity Buck, daughter of Township Supervisor Leo Quinn who is a breast cancer survivor.

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For Lurie, having the Eagles partner with Jefferson made for a “great team."

"We aspired to to create a partnership,” Lurie said because the Eagles have “a special place in our heart in tackling breast cancer.”

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Lurie went on to say that “success is often difficult to quantify, [but] not with tackling breast cancer. Eagles fans helped to build this place,” she said, referring to the more than $1 million sold from Eagles pink breast cancer awareness merchandise.

For Coleman, fighting breast cancer became a personal battle after, of all people, his father was diagnosed and won a five year battle with the disease. According to the American Cancer Society, about 2,140 new cases of breast cancer in men will be diagnosed this year, and 450 men will die from breast cancer in 2011.

“I had been involved with several causes for breast cancer since my dad was diagnosed,” Coleman said “It’s a great cause and a great opportunity.”

He said for Eagles fans “raising over a million dollars is something special.”

Buck was understandably shocked when she learned the news of her diagnosis of breast cancer of the mammary ducts, called Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS). After all, not too many 27 years old hear such terrifying news.

The English as a Second Language teacher at E. Morton Crouthamel Elementary School in Souderton said doctors first didn’t even check for breast cancer because of her age.

Fortunately for her, the doctors at Jefferson told her the cancer was “stage 0” and “noninvasive” meaning it didn’t break apart and spread to other parts of the body. Doctors told Buck “you kind of won the breast cancer lottery,” Buck said. The cancer was “the most operable, we’ll fix you.”

Buck said the prognosis is good. She is 99% sure she is cancer free, but gets an MRI and a mammogram every year just to be sure.

Dr. Richard Pestell, an oncologist at Jefferson, said that the center will treat patients in two ways. The first is a genetic makeup tailored treatment, providing treatment specifically designed for each individual patient.

Secondly, the center will implement cutting edge therapies to provide patients the best chance of survival. Pestell called it a “living center” that was constantly evolving to meet the needs of its patients.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of early breast cancer detection.

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