From left: Joel Dudley, PhD; Elisa Port, MD; Perri Peltz; Emily Sonnenblick, MD; Hanna Irie, MD, PhD; Michael Brodman, MD; Eva Andersson Dubin, MD; and Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Five leading researchers and clinicians at the Mount Sinai Health System discussed the latest trends in women’s health with more than 100 guests at the Dubin Breast Center’s fourth annual Fact vs. Fiction Luncheon and Symposium, held recently in midtown Manhattan. Mount Sinai’s experts responded to questions from the audience on pressing issues such as advances in cancer immunotherapy; how each person’s unique microbiome, or bacteria, interacts with his or her immune system; and whether chemotherapy is the best treatment for all invasive breast cancers.
Guests included, from left: Sonia Jones, JulieAnn Edmonds, and Geralyn Lucas.
This year’s event was presented by the Marisa Acocella Marchetto Foundation through a grant from Bloomingdale’s. Perri Peltz, host of “Doctor Radio Reports,” a weekly public health program on Sirius XM radio, served as moderator. Eva Andersson Dubin, MD, Founder of the Dubin Breast Center at The Tisch Cancer Institute, provided opening remarks. In addition to fresh fruit smoothies, the guests dined on organic and seasonal fish, vegetables, and grains.
Elisa Port, MD, right, Co-Director of the Dubin Breast Center at The Tisch Cancer Institute, recently celebrated the release of her book, The New Generation Breast Cancer Book: How to Navigate Your Diagnosis and Treatment Options—and Remain Optimistic—in an Age of Information Overload at a special signing event hosted by Eva Andersson Dubin, MD, left, and Mount Sinai Trustee Glenn Dubin, and Jamie and David Mitchell.
Elisa Port, MD, Co-Director of the Dubin Breast Center and Chief of Breast Surgery, said the annual Fact vs. Fiction event was a great opportunity for Mount Sinai’s experts to reliably guide the public through the flood of information or misinformation they receive on the Internet or through social media. “It’s so easy for some of these myths to get perpetuated,” she said. One myth she debunked at the symposium is the widely held rumor of a link between breast cancer and the use of deodorant.
The panel participants also included:
- Michael Brodman, MD, Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chairman’s Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, who told the audience that there is no difference between so-called “bioidentical hormones” that are administered through a patch and hormone pills taken by mouth;
- Joel Dudley, PhD, Director of Biomedical Informatics and Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, who explained how an individual’s microbiome can influence the way the body processes medicine;
- Hanna Irie, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology), and Oncological Sciences, who pointed to new drugs and immunotherapies that may soon be available for certain breast cancers; and
- Emily Sonnenblick, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiology, who discussed the use of screening mammography for early cancer detection and supplemental breast imaging technologies for average and high-risk women.