Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Gene Patents

A big part of Pure Ideas’ culture is caring for the people in the team, embracing their individuality, celebrating their good times and supporting them through their bad times. Sharing our stories is a big part of this culture.

For Breast Cancer Awareness month, our Senior Managing Attorney Vikki Townsend saw an opportunity to share a personal story which might help others feel less alone and to explore through patents how Breast Cancer can be diagnosed, monitored and treated in today’s world.

Vikki’s story:

“My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was 7 years old, this was in the 1970s and treatments weren’t nearly as sophisticated as they are now. I remember her as a weak and waif-like woman without hair, nothing like the athletically built musical theatre performer in the old photos my Dad liked to reminisce over after she’d gone. She was in and out of hospital many times over the next four years. When she was at home, she was bedridden, her bed and commode set up in the living room behind the family sofa. Dad nursed her, preparing special liquid food, changing her dressings and emptying her ostomy bag, all whilst working full time and raising me and my two older siblings. This was my normal, I had no real appreciation as to the burden my Dad was taking on, he’d get noticeably stressed and as kids we’d sometimes laugh about him being “dramatic”, and I didn’t really understand how much my Mam was suffering. Neither of them complained, they both just soldiered on somehow sheltering me from their pain.

Fast forward 25 years and my cousin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then a few years after that, my sister with breast cancer. Both died within days of each other. My sister had a daughter of primary school age in whom I saw my own experience from a very different perspective. As an adult I shared conversations with my sister and her husband who nursed her as her condition deteriorated, just as my Dad had done for my Mam, and both whilst doing everything they could to protect their daughter from the awfulness of what each was going through. I came to understand the physical pain and emotional strain on my sister of the regular cycles of various therapies with all the awful side effects that came with them. I watched as she slowly lost weight, lost her hair, then stability on her legs, then her sight in one eye. I saw the heartbreak in her eyes when she could no longer braid her daughter’s hair for dance shows or skate with her on the ice rink and the sadness she hid behind the smiles she still gave when praising her child. I spent many long nights drinking whiskey with him as he shared his heartbreak and struggles caring for the terminally ill wife he adored whilst he tried to appear strong and parent his daughter alone. I visited regularly and took on jobs like the hair braiding and the skating and cheering enthusiastically at the performances. I wanted to do more to help, but sometimes there’s little that can be done. I listened, I acknowledged how awful it all was, I was there for emotional support, and I reflected. I reflected on how much my own Dad had gone through to raise me and my siblings through those very difficult years. I realized then what a true hero he was to me.”

In the 30+ years between these events, the understanding of what causes breast cancer, and the science of how it is diagnosed, monitored and treated has progressed rapidly. Doctors are now able to predict who might be at high risk, offer early screening and prophylactic operations to reduce their risks. Screening techniques can catch early signs much sooner, treatments are less aggressive and often more successful, and advancements in stoma bags, prosthetics and implants can all make life more comfortable for survivors. This month, Pure Ideas explores some of these advancements looking at patented technologies relevant to the diagnosis, treatment and survival of breast cancer.