Md. Breast Cancer Survivor Has Important Message For Other Women

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month--a great time to highlight the need for new technology and treatments.

Jessica Kartalija spoke with a survivor who has an important message for other women.

At the cancer institute at Saint Agnes Hospital, Kathie Strobel and her doctor have spent a year battling her breast cancer.

"It's a shock when you're first diagnosed. You can't believe it. I certainly didn't think it would happen to me, but it did," said Strobel.

Right now, there are more than 2.8 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and those who've finished treatment.

Doctor Diana Griffiths is the director of the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Agnes.

"We have developed newer and better, more effective treatments, and Kathie is an example of that," she said. "She received some cutting edge new treatments that really gave her an excellent response."

"I found the lump myself, it did not show up on a mammogram," said Strobel. "So my message to a lot of women is know your body, check yourself."

Kathie underwent chemotherapy, a lumpectomy, radiation and medication for the past year.

Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women.

Dr. Griffiths says it becomes a sisterhood network of women fighting the disease together.

"Women who have been diagnosed are willing to participate in clinical trials, which is a way for them to say, 'If I have to go through this, I want to help myself, but I also want to be able to help somebody else,'" said Dr. Griffiths.

As for Strobel, she has just one more treatment to go.

"It's coming to an end, but it's good and I'm cured," she said. "I just feel like I made it. It sounds cliche, but I'm a survivor."

It's estimated that some 231,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. It's also estimated that some 40,000 will lose their battle this year.

The breast cancer death rate is 24 percent higher in black women than white women.