Beth Beck (right) with CBCC Clinical Partner Dr. Regina Hampton

On the eve our fifth annual Gift of Life Breakfast, it becomes clearer than ever that every great organization needs an exceptional leader. Beth Beck, Executive Director, of the Capital Breast Care Center, is the Center’s fearless leader, who has propelled the expansion of the Center as a widely respected and well-known community resource. The YPAC interviewed Beth to better understand her passion and unyielding commitment to the Center’s success. She truly is a gem for our city and the Center.

Q: The CBCC staff seems to have a genuine, personal connection to the Center’s mission.  Why do you think that is? What is your motivation for    working at the Center?
A: Yes, our staff truly care about the women we serve. Their personal investment in our clients and our mission creates the welcoming and safe environment everyone feels when they step into the center. The CBCC staff makes this a very special place to work and to visit for our clients.

Personally I have experienced how challenging it can be to navigate our health care system while caring for an elderly parent, which is why I am particularly proud of our patient navigation services. Our patient navigators provide emotional support to patients and their families, explain diagnostic procedures, and ensure that follow-up care is available. It is an excellent model for local centers providing needed services for their community.

Q: What are the challenges and greatest moments so far at the center?
A: I am immensely proud of our expansion of services for ultrasound-guided biopsies.  Thanks to the $200,000 grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), starting on September 1st, women needing a biopsy following a suspicious finding on a diagnostic mammogram can now receive an ultrasound-guided biopsy.

By offering this service, CBCC is eliminating a common barrier faced by uninsured and under-insured women – that of identifying and traveling to a hospital that can provide this service while taking into account the individuals’ particular financial situations. This expansion also is funded in part by the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Thanks to partners like these, we can better serve the women in the DC metropolitan area.

Q: What has been one of the most surprising things you’ve learned about breast cancer treatment?
A: Since the Capital Breast Care Center specializes in breast cancer screening services, I have seen firsthand just how vital early detection is for treatment. If caught early, breast cancer can be more easily treated. Early detection of breast cancer by mammography also leads to a greater range of treatment options, including less-aggressive surgery (e.g., lumpectomy vs. mastectomy) and less-aggressive adjuvant therapy, according to the American Cancer Society. For that reason, CBCC has proven to be an incredibly invaluable community resource.

The District of Columbia has some of the highest rates of breast cancer mortality in the nation. Women in this community – especially low-income, minority women – face many barriers to receiving breast cancer screening services and health education. Moreover, findings show that African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer. One explanation may be that African-American women have faster growing (more aggressive) tumors. The CBCC offers an uniquely intimate and friendly environment that is culturally competent for our clients. A typical visit to CBCC includes a comprehensive health history, clinical and screening history, a clinical breast examination, and mammogram.  Each patient will learn about her risk for breast cancer and how to do a self examination and monitor changes in her breasts. For our community, these services are priceless.

Q: How can local DC residents get involved with the CBCC? What are your greatest needs?
A: There are two ways you can take action to help: Donate and Volunteer! We welcome financial contributions, in-kind donations and your time as a volunteer. There are even fun and social events you can attend to show your support. Learn how CBCC’s Young Professionals Advisory Council is using their time, creativity and connections to support CBCC. No matter your age, background, or gender, we appreciate your help!

YPAC members and friends at The Passenger happy hour fundraiser.

Last week was happy hour week for the Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC)!

On Monday, YPAC partnered with The Passenger for a happy hour benefiting the Capital Breast Care Center. Not only was a great time had by all, but 10% of proceeds from the evening will go to CBCC!

On Saturday, October 1, YPAC and the fantastic people at PREVIVE held our next happy hour fundraiser at FunXion. PREVIVE is very generously donating 25% of the proceeds from the event with CBCC.

PREVIVE is a DC-based documentary webseries that captures the story of a young woman tasked with a very difficult decision – to live with a harrowing risk of breast cancer or to remove her healthy breasts. At 23 years old, Claudia Gilmore decides to have a preventative mastectomy and documents every step along the journey. This inspirational series shows that you’re never too young to take care of your health and previve, rather than survive. To watch the webisodes and learn more about Claudia’s story, visit www.previve.com.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2008. She had her surgery in Scranton, PA, near my hometown of Tunkhannock. After a disasterous meeting with a local oncologist (three months AFTER her surgery because that was the earliest appointment she could get!), she came down to Washington, DC, to meet with the breast cancer care team at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.  She had chemotherapy and a year’s worth of follow-up with Herceptin, a drug that further decreases the chance of recurrence of her specific type of tumor. She is cancer-free now.

Wondering why I would like to support Capital Breast Care Center?
The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University along with Washington Hospital Center and supported by a generous grant from Avon Foundation for Women launched Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC) in 2004 in southeast Washington, DC. CBCC is the only community-based breast cancer screening clinic in the DC metropolitan area–perhaps the nation–that provides screening and navigation services to women, regardless of their ability to pay. What’s more, it is the only center in southeast DC to offer all-digital screenings. CBCC has dramatically increased screening rates since 2004, and they are detecting cancers at twice the national average. CBCC recently expanded their services to include ultrasound-guided biopsy.

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Photo credit: www.buzzle.com

Being diagnosed with breast cancer can be one of the most difficult situations a person can face in her lifetime. It is very easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn.

Fortunately, an abundance of resources is available to help you during this difficult time. The following is a “potpourri” of different types of resources available online or within the DC metro area:

• The Young Survival Coalition (YSC) offers in-person support programs and monthly social events in the DC metro area.
• The Cancer Support Community (CSC) recently partnered with George Washington University and the Washington Hospital Center to offer patient education workshops and support groups from CSC’s “Frankly Speaking About Cancer” educational series. This series explores many of the concerns patients and their loved ones encounter after a diagnosis.
• Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization (Y-ME) has a program, entitled “YourShoes®”, in which you can call and speak to a breast cancer survivor any time of day. Y-ME also offers a “Survivor Match Program,” in which a breast cancer patient is paired with a peer counselor who has the same diagnosis, is the same age or has experienced similar challenges.
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) has a special section on their website for those newly diagnosed patients, where you can read about the latest breast cancer news, treatments and clinical trials.
• CancerCare operates the AVONCares program for medically underserved women, which provides financial help to low-income, under- and uninsured women nationwide who need supportive services (transportation, child care, home care) related to cancer treatment for breast and cervical cancer.
• Hope Connections for Cancer Support offers mind-body classes such as Gentle Yoga, Energy Healing, Pink Ribbon Pilates, Knitting and Stitch & Chat among others.

CBCC Executive Director Beth Beck

I am pleased to share some wonderful news: As you read in our headline article, we will begin offering ultrasound-guided biopsies. The addition of the biopsy services marks a momentous moment for CBCC and our patients. What began as a small, community breast cancer screening program in 2004, when we screened 500 women a year, has grown into a state-of-the-art breast cancer screening facility where 2,000 women annually access breast health care and screening for cancer. We are on our way to becoming a community-based comprehensive breast health center.

Why is this expansion so important for CBCC? Adding these services enables us to serve our patients better, making breast care and adherence to diagnostic recommendations less cumbersome. Last year, more than 40 of our patients needed ultrasound-guided biopsies. Our navigators scheduled them for follow-up care which, depending on their eligibility for insurance or public assistance, may have taken them all over the greater metropolitan area. Our navigators then worked with different health systems to procure the biopsy results so they could continue navigating our patients for either treatment or follow-up care. The process was time-consuming, but was the most efficient process available within the fragmented health system we work.

We have been working on expanding our services for quite some time. This is only the first with what we hope will be more to come. The support we have been offered by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation has finally made our dream to offer biopsies a reality. Dr. Regina Hampton, a locally-renowned breast surgeon, will perform the procedures and provide the follow-up care. We appreciate her work and value our partnership with her.

This is just one more step in the journey that we will continue to take—one that makes breast health affordable and accessible to our community.

Originally published in Capital Breast Care’s Summer 2011 flyer.

I learned about Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC) in 2007, when I had no health insurance coverage. I remember how awful it felt to say, “I do not have health insurance.” Having no health insurance, I was reluctant to ask where to go for a mammogram. I held onto a troubling sense that others attached a stigma to my status; when I finally mustered the courage to ask about breast care, none of the medical practitioners I had seen for years could tell me where to go for a mammogram.

The degree of indifference I experienced from many of my former health care providers surprised me. It was as if being without health insurance I had committed an offense. I had the feeling that it was somehow my fault I was without health care coverage. I felt a sense of betrayal that my doctors had nothing more to offer than the hollow words: “sorry” and “good luck.” I found no literature about Capital Breast Care Center or any organizations providing similar services in any of the offices of the doctors I had seen for years.

No one could tell me where to begin my search. Then it occurred to me to contact Whitman-Walker Clinic as I knew they helped people without insurance. The clinic gave me the telephone number to Capital Breast Care Center. I wondered how was it that the medical practitioners I had seen had no knowledge of Capital Breast Care Center. I began to contemplate why I not heard of CBCC.

I realized I had not reflected much on being uninsured. I had not been directly affected by my lack of insurance before then. I am certain if asked about my thoughts regarding the uninsured, I would have expressed deep concern. I cared, I thought. But, how much did I actually care?

The logistics of how people maintain their health without the aid of insurance did not fully appear on my radar until I was directly impacted. My experience forced me to develop an awareness of an issue which affects many. Not only did I become fully aware, I was now compelled to take action. In doing so, I learned a great deal about myself and found CBCC is a valuable resource and treasure unknown to much of the community.

Without health care coverage, I had a lot of fear. My fear exposed my ignorance and misconceptions about organizations providing services to those uninsured. I never thought I would walk through the doors of such an organization; that was just not me, so I told myself.

After reading a brochure about Capital Breast Care Center, I called and made an appointment. Still, I had no idea what to expect. Anxiety clouded my thoughts. I thought the services would be inferior to what I had experienced as an insured person. I feared long waits.

Finally, the day of my appointment arrived. When I entered the office and I approached the receptionist, the flurry in my stomach slowly dissipated. I was greeted professionally and warmly. At each phase of the visit, I was met with competent and sensitive staff. There were no long waits.

The quality of care I received at CBCC was every bit as good as what I had experienced at doctors offices where I had used my private health insurance. The standard of service and care exceed my expectations. It raised the bar for the kind of service I would expect from all future visits to my doctors. The experience made me pretty excited about a procedure I had always dreaded. The excitement was about finding this amazing facility. I began telling friends and family to visit CBCC.

A few years ago I joined the CBCC staff part-time as the van driver. I was so glad to work for an organization I saw doing so much for the community. By then I had qualified for coverage under DC Alliance health insurance. Under the particular plan, I had to go to a hospital in DC for my mammogram.

My experience at a local, large hospital was shockingly awful. The reception area was crowded with patients. The wait was long. Though several receptionists assisted patients, each seemed overwhelmed. After seeing the receptionist, I waited again. Then I was directed to wait in a room with other women waiting. Finally, the mammography technician saw me.

After the screening, I was sent to wait in another area. I was then called in  to have another technician do a second screening. She showed little regard for my concern that the procedure was being repeated. She simply stated, “it has to be repeated.” I asked if someone had made a mistake. She acknowledged affirmatively with the absences of an apology.

The visit with the doctor regarding the screening results was equally disturbing. The doctor was cold, impersonal, hurried and preoccupied. She had a very brief consult with me and completely dismissed my concerns. Even during that visit, I waited an interminably long time before seeing the doctor. I will always remember waiting for poor treatment at this well-respected facility. It is not at all what I expected from that institution. I shared this experience with family and friends as well.

Now, as a full-time staff member at Capital Breast Care Center with health care coverage, I can choose from a number of facilities for a mammography screening. My spouse and I have chosen to have our annual screenings at Capital Breast Care Center. We make this choice because of the outstanding care we receive at CBCC. We also choose CBCC because our mammograms defray the cost of mammograms for women with no health care coverage.

CBCC is a small facility and it is not as well known as it should be. CBCC does a huge job extremely well. Big and well-known is not always better. I experienced this first hand. I learned about Capital Breast Care Center because I did not have health care coverage. My goal is to make sure that others learn about CBCC.

I hope that women who have health care coverage choose to make a choice that makes a difference in the life of a woman. Having a mammogram can also give a gift; it does at CBCC. My mammogram enables another woman to get hers as well.

When I visit my doctors for routine annual appointments I take CBCC fliers with me for the office to spread awareness and to give others the opportunity to make a choice. Now more women, who lack insurance and are seeking breast care, will find the information they need.

Dr. Regina Hampton

In July, Capital Breast Care Center entered into a clinical partnership with Dr. Regina Hampton of Signature Breast Care. Dr. Hampton is a Board Certified General Surgeon with a special interest and expertise in benign and malignant breast disease.

She is becoming widely recognized in the DC metro area as the “breast expert,” and she speaks regionally and nationally on the management of breast disease. Dr. Hampton has been one of the few specialists in the area who would provide care for CBCC patients.

In addition to her duties with CBCC, Dr. Hampton serves as the president of the Prince George’s County Medical Society, as vice chairman of the Department of Surgery at Doctors Community Hospital, and as co-chair and co-founder of the Breast Tumor Board at Doctors Community Hospital.

CBCC: How do you like working at CBCC?

Dr. Hampton: I enjoy being a part of the team. The care and support we provide
is comparable, and, in some instances, better than that provided at larger facilities. I feel privileged to help make a difference in the lives of these women and their families.

CBCC: What prompted you to join CBCC?

Dr. Hampton: I have been taking care of the surgical needs of women who utilize CBCC’s services for the last three years. It seemed like a natural fit for me to become a clinical partner. I feel strongly that a woman’s inability to afford health care should not preclude her from receiving the best breast care and state-of-the-art treatments that are available to those with insurance.

CBCC: You strive to fight breast cancer in your practice. What inspired you to enter such challenging and rewarding work?

Dr. Hampton: In Prince George’s county, I am currently the only female surgeon with a practice dedicated 100 percent to breast care. I am frustrated with the poor care that women are receiving. I am proud to offer state-of-the-art care and treatment to the women in the area in a quiet community setting.

CBCC: What surprised you, if anything, about the Center, its work, and its patients?
Dr. Hampton: I am impressed with the care and compassion shown to the patients. I think the setup of the waiting room is warm and inviting.

CBCC: What are the most important actions individuals can take to catch breast cancer?

Dr. Hampton: Perform monthly self-breast exams, get yearly mammograms, and notify your health care provider if you feel something abnormal in the breast. It is so disheartening to know that women have not gotten the message that early detection truly does save lives.

CBCC: What advice would you give people who want to help women fight breast cancer?

Dr. Hampton: It helps to donate to reputable breast cancer organizations, but more important is to be supportive to those going through treatment—hold a hand, cook a meal, offer to babysit, help her get back to enjoyable activities. These small gestures are priceless.

Photo by Leslie Kossoff

Originally published in Capital Breast Care’s December 2010 Flyer.

Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC) and YPAC maintained a presence on and off the race course. Walkers joined the crowds, wending their way around the National Mall, while staffers and YPAC members greeted participants who approached CBCC’s information table.

CBCC is a grant beneficiary of Susan G. Komen, recently receiving a $200,000, two-year grant to fund its current “Public Education to Prevent Breast Cancer” program. “We appreciate our partnership with Komen and are thrilled so many people support finding a cure through Race for a Cure,” says CBCC Executive Director, Beth Beck.

Celebratory best describes the mood of the morning, with music accompanying all the action. Ambassador Nancy Brinker inspired the crowd, Holly Perkins readied the walkers to walk 5 kilometers with simple stretches and exercises, and Tim Halperin honored survivors by singing his song, “We Fight Back.” Survivors danced across the finish line and all wore smiles; yet, the sense of loss was palpable. So many people still lose the battle.

Indeed, Nancy Brinker wrote in The Huffington Post that, “We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a lot of work to do, and we can’t afford to wait for someone else to do it. This fight belongs to all of us. Only by working together, speaking out and joining together will we win this race against breast cancer.” With Komen and the other agencies in this fight, CBCC will continue to battle on the front lines.

Did you run or walk Race for the Cure in DC? Tell us how it affected you!

Not every young woman thinks about breast reconstruction.  I mean, what in the heck does that mean anyway?  After a mastectomy, women have no breasts anymore, right?  How could surgeons ever rebuild a woman’s breasts if there’s nothing left?  And, if a surgeon can do this, how big (or small) could she go?  Does she even have a choice?

These are all questions I asked myself when I decided to have a mastectomy last January at 23 years old.  I was pretty young, but I tested positive for a dangerous genetic mutation that put me at risk for breast cancer, and I didn’t want to wait for the shoe to drop.  After all, a young woman has better things to do, like going on dates and starting a career!  So, I decided it was time to put it all behind me with a preventative mastectomy.

But the only way I was going to lop off my perfectly healthy breasts was if I could get a spectacular new set in return.  I’m a young unmarried woman, so I can’t spoil my goods.  I wanted to come out of this experience looking more beautiful than ever.

As it turns out, this is possible!  My surgeons said I could keep my skin and nipples, but everything inside had to go.  That meant I could never breast feed my future babies, but they would otherwise look pretty darn normal, if not even better.

Once I scheduled my mastectomy, it was time to make the big decisions.  How would I want to look when all was said and done?  Would I want to go a little bigger?  Would I want to stay the same size?  And once I decided upon the size, what kind of implant would I like?  Because, of course, there are different types of implants – some shaped like tear drops, others that are round, and some are round and super perky.  The options, just like the sizes, were endless!

I spent countless hours deliberating between going with smaller implants or larger implants, tear-drop implants or round implants.  I wanted to look and feel perfect!  So, just for fun, I tried imagining myself with larger breasts.  If I was going to experience a mastectomy at 23 years old, I might as well have something to show for it.  But I honestly couldn’t visualize what the implants would look like on my petite figure.  It was frustrating trying to make a decision, a really big decision, without being able to picture the end result.

Well, just last week my friend told me about an iPhone “app” called iAugment.  This application shows you how your breasts will look with implants.  How amazing!  You simply take a picture of your figure and it provides a virtual visualization of your breasts with several different implant sizes.

Though I already made my final decision before learning about iAugment, I cannot imagine how helpful this would be to other women who are considering mastectomies and breast reconstruction.  You can basically try on different breast sizes before picking the one that fits you best.  Just for fun, try it out yourself!

Now that my breast reconstruction is over, I couldn’t be happier with my new figure.  Besides a small scar under each breast flap, no one would ever know I had a mastectomy.  In fact, some people still ask me when I’m planning my surgeries.  Gosh, what a compliment!  It certainly is possible to beat breast cancer without sacrificing your looks.  The battle only makes you stronger, and more beautiful.