Faran's company, Skyrad, associated with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, expects the Sticker to hit U.S. markets next spring, costing less than a dime each. NCI oncologist Pamela M. Klein, research director at the naval hospital's Breast Care Center, teamed with five nurses to start the twice-monthly classes last year. They worried that women weren't getting enough help in making sensible decisions about breast cancer risk, hormone replacement therapy and preventive measures, including treatment with drugs such as tamoxifen. Last month, they opened the two-hour sessions to the public. They can sort of purge what they don't have to worry about and focus on what they do have to worry about.
Participants sign up for a simple two-hour session.
At a recent class attended by 14 women and two men, nurse educator Laurel Snyder expertly put into perspective a disease that evokes many women's worst fears. Many women figure, 'Oh my gosh, my great aunt Tilly had breast cancer. That may not be the case. Eighty-five percent of breast cancer cases, she said, are not attributable to inherited factors. Having fibrocystic lumps in your breasts doesn't by itself put you at higher than average risk of breast cancer.