breast cancer diagnosis mammogram ultrasound - Lemonade Fund

October 7 War Grants Fund

Audrey — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 09:38:08 +0000

Ensuring Uninterrupted Access to Oncology Treatments

Soon after the war began on October 7, 2023, the Lemonade Fund immediately launched an emergency fund for wartime grants (NIS 1800 each) to ensure support for uninterrupted oncology care and to fill the gap until government agencies are operating fully.

This emergency fund, with an expedited application process, supported cancer patients who suddenly found themselves in acute economic hardship

133 Wartime Emergency Grants were sent from October 18-November 9

NIS 1800 ($465) x 133 grants = NIS 239,400 ($61,845)

How We Helped

Funds for transporting patients who were evacuated from their homes, who were now far from treatment centers

Childcare for those whose family members were drafted

Income supplementation for lost income due to war

Other emergency assistance as outlined by social workers

We thank you for donating to aid the most urgent cases of acute economic distress following the terrible attack on Israel on October 7th.

Who we helped

These are just two examples of the 150+ applications from social workers we processed:

E., a 43-year old divorced ovarian cancer patient in active treatment, was left alone at home on the northern border when her two children, who used to accompany her to treatments, were drafted . With no way to get to her treatments, an Israel Lemonade Fund emergency war grant helps pay for taxi rides to the hospital.

R. is a 75-year old widow from Sderot being treated for endometrial cancer. She was evacuated with only the clothes on her back. She is traumatized by the rockets and afraid of what lies ahead, when, and if, she can return home. A Lemonade Fund emergency war grant is helping her purchase basic items, and pay for transportation to the hospital for treatment since she has been evacuated to a safer location.

Knowing that the war is far from over, we will now shift to assisting the war effort by allocating additional funding to Lemonade Fund applicants who have suffered financial impact caused by war.

Please partner with us to keep oncological care uninterrupted during this challenging time. Thank you.

Please stand with us to come to their aid.

A donor has generously offered to cover the costs of running this program – 100% of your donation will go directly to fund grants.

Donate

The post October 7 War Grants Fund first appeared on Lemonade Fund.

Empowering the Periphery

Audrey — Thu, 18 May 2023 15:17:27 +0000

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)

Empowering the Periphery

The Lemonade Fund Empowering the Periphery program provides additional funds to recipients of emergency financial relief grants for Israeli citizens with breast and gynecological malignancies from underserved communities and weak populations.

The Empowering the Periphery program arose from the urgent need to provide the extra help needed for patients most affected by the inherent social, economic and healthcare inequities in the towns, villages and communities located in Israel’s periphery.

Why is the Empowering the Periphery Program So Important?

Serious illness is expensive. Research has shown that in six months, a health crisis can force a family into bankruptcy or homelessness. Cancer treatments are long and often cause many extra expenses, (i.e., childcare or household help, transportation to and from doctor appointments and treatments, etc.) However, the primary impact is loss of income due to time off from work. Some patients get to a point where they cannot pay rent and eviction becomes a threat.

These difficulties are ten-fold in under-served populations in rural cities, towns and villages. The objective of the Lemonade Fund’s Empowering the Periphery program is to give help where it is needed most: for patients crushed by the burden of time-consuming travel, high transportation costs and who face the threat of losing their homes. Empowering the Periphery program grants will be used to help cover these costs and overcome inherent inequities in Israel’s periphery communities.

Who is eligible?

Israeli citizens, within one year of diagnosis, with proven financial need, living in the periphery
Grant applications are submitted via hospital and community social workers.
A committee meets once a month to review applications, vetting and verifying applications using a transparent, detailed point system

J. is a divorced 53 year-old new immigrant from Russia. She immigrated with one of her three daughters to escape the war in nearby Ukraine, arriving right before war broke out in Israel on October 7. She was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after. J. speaks almost no Hebrew, suffers from depression and is too weak from treatments to work. With her absorption package ending, a Lemonade Fund grant is helping J. and her daughter meet their most basic household expenses. This is allowing J. to focus on her recovery and begin her new life in Israel.

Donate Now

Empowering the Periphery Program Rationale

Target Population

Israel’s periphery is defined as the Northern regions of the Galilee, upper Galilee and Golan Heights, the Negev region in Israel’s south, and Eilat. Many communities in these areas have disproportionately large numbers of economically and educationally disadvantaged residents, and are home to large minority populations, such as Druze, Israeli Arabs, Beduin, Circassian, new immigrants from Ethiopia, the Former Soviet Union and Ukrainian war refugees.

Demographic Research

The ramifications of these inequities relative to outcomes and cancer care are well-documented in the Trends and Gaps in Morbidity and Mortality from Cancer Within Towns in Israel analysis, published in February 2023 by the Taub Center. This report suggests that Israelis living in the most wealthy localities have a better chance of surviving cancer than those who live in the rest of the country, indicating substantial differences between low to middle-income vs high-income areas.

The analysis suggests that there is “health inequality” related to socioeconomic status and unequal health provision outside central Israel. This stems, in part, from the fact that wealthier populations tend to lead healthier lifestyles with better access to healthcare and better knowledge of how to navigate Israel’s public healthcare systems. A second explanation reflects geographical factors. Israel’s wealthiest locales tend to be clustered in the center of the country, where there is a range of high caliber top medical facilities. In Israel’s periphery there is a much smaller choice of health facilities to choose from, most of which are not research facilities and people need to travel much farther to reach these hospitals and clinics for proper treatment of serious illnesses, like breast cancer and gynecological malignancies. If there are fewer medical professionals and it is difficult for patients to schedule and reach appointments in the periphery, it follows that the rate of earlier detection declines, leaving patients sicker and with lower chances of successfully fighting disease.

Lemonade Fund Experience

The results of this research is inline with the Lemonade Fund’s historical application data. Approximately 90% of the applicants for emergency grants from 2022 to date submitted by social workers for patients in the periphery suffer from late stage disease and cite they are struggling under difficulties related to transport (time and cost). Many report numerous underlying conditions and comorbidities that make their disease even more difficult to treat and manage.

A. 49 year-old Bedouin woman, the second wife of a man 20 years her senior and the mother of several children, turned to the Lemonade Fund for financial assistance for childcare and household expenses, and critical travel expenses to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva, a great distance from her Bedouin settlement, for treatments. She suffers great pain from Stage IV breast cancer and is unable to care for herself or her family, causing severe depression.

“The socioeconomic situation is generally lower in the periphery. The catchment area of Soroka Hospital covers one of the largest geographical areas in the country. That means many patients have to travel by bus for close to three hours round trip for treatments, some of which are given daily for a month. There are no nearby accommodation options or cost-effective transportation for those distances. Also fewer residents in the periphery carry private health insurance making it difficult, if not impossible, to pay for medicines outside the health basket.”
Oncology Institute Social Worker
Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva

Your contribution to the Empowering the Periphery program will go directly toward providing the extra help cancer patients from Israel’s under-served periphery communities need.

Donate Now

The post Empowering the Periphery first appeared on Lemonade Fund.

Purim E-Greeting Cards

Audrey — Mon, 15 May 2023 15:34:29 +0000

The Lemonade Fund invites supporters to send meaningful e-cards in lieu of Mishloach Manot for Purim.

The proceeds of the e-cards go directly to support emergency financial aid for Israeli cancer patients, in need, throughout the Israel.

For a minimum donation, donors receive a beautifully designed e-card, customized with their name, to share as many times as they wish.

For updates on when these campaigns are launched please subscribe to our newsletter.

The post Purim E-Greeting Cards first appeared on Lemonade Fund.

Profiles in Courage: September 2015

lemon — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:35:14 +0000

T., 51, has an unusual story. She was sent, against her will, by her family in Eastern Europe, to work in Israel as a foreign worker. When she arrived, T. discovered she was pregnant and refused an abortion (because of her religious beliefs) despite her family’s urging. She worked hard, raising her child alone, eventually falling in love with an Israeli citizen after divorcing her first husband. They had a child in addition to T.’s first child (now 16) and together this small family formed a new life together. In 2010, T. was treated for localized breast cancer and in 2014 it returned as stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. To make matters worse, her partner has become disabled due to a recent stroke. T.’s social worker applied to the Lemonade Fund and on T.’s behalf to help her during this time of financial crisis brought about by serious illness. An award was granted and we wish T. and her family a speedy recovery.
The Lemonade Fund wants to thank all of you who donated during our urgent appeal last month. The amount of applications to the Lemonade Fund is growing and we thanks to you we have been able to finance more grants. Thank you for continuing to help us help disadvantaged Israeli breast cancer patients.
To Donate: https://lemonadefund.org/to-donate/

The post Profiles in Courage: September 2015 first appeared on Lemonade Fund.

Second Annual Women's Health Awareness Evening

lemon — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 18:30:51 +0000

The post Second Annual Women's Health Awareness Evening first appeared on Lemonade Fund.

Important article by my friend, Dr. Lisa Weinstock-Finkel re latest ways to diagnose breast cancer in earliest stages.

lemon — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:50:53 +0000

October 12, 2012

Tickled Pink?!
It’s that time of year again – October is breast cancer awareness month; pink everywhere – even the Giants are donning pink! But aren’t we already aware of breast cancer? We all have been directly or indirectly touched by this disease.
Maybe we are being made aware in order to remind us to get a mammogram? Early diagnosis saves lives – right?
But what if you were made AWARE that your mammogram was as accurate as a flip of a coin? That means 50 percent of cancers on your mammogram could be missed! This is the reality if you have “dense breast tissue.”
The accuracy of a mammogram is predominantly based on breast density. Mammograms are 98 percent accurate in finding tumors on fatty tissue. But 50 percent of cancers
in dense tissue are missed on mammograms because the glandular and fibrous
tissue – that’s what dense means – are white and obscure the cancers which also appear white. A mammogram on dense tissue is like a car with a blind spot – the cancer might be there, you just can’t see it.

Recent studies have shown that having dense breast tissue is in itself a risk factor for developing breast cancer – up to 4-6 times the risk when compared to women with fatty tissue. Supplemental screening is helpful in dense tissue because the images show tissue and tumors differently. Ultrasound, Magnetic Resource Imaging (MRI) and Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) are excellent at finding cancers in dense tissue.
Mammography is still the gold standard because it has been proven time and again to save lives. Women with dense breast tissue still need mammograms because there are abnomalities that are only seen in with mammograms such as micro calcifications.
Your breast cancer awareness starts with a mammogram – but it’s just that – a start.
Here is a review of the imaging modalities I recommend – and a few that I don’t – so you know what is available, how imaging types are different from each other, and why you may or may not need to consider them. I hope this will help you navigate through all the information, sometimes confusing and conflicting, that you read:
Digital Mammography – One day we read that mammograms are great and the next day that they are useless! What’s the truth?
Mammography is excellent at finding cancers in women with fatty tissue.
Briefly, breast tissue is made of glandular, fatty and fibrous tissue.
The percentages of each vary in women mostly based on genetics. In addition as
women get older the percentage of glandular tissue may be replaced by fatty
tissue however this is not always the case and any fatty replacement may not be
significant.
At this time almost all radiology centers have replaced the older film screen mammography with digital mammography as digital provides images that can be analyzed faster and stored and shared more easily.
Ultrasound – Breast ultrasound uses sound waves that cannot be heard by humans, with no radiation, to look at the breast. A water-soluble gel is placed on the skin of the breast. A hand-held device (transducer) directs the sound waves to the breast tissue. The
transducer is moved over the skin of the breast to create a picture that can be
seen on a screen. Breast ultrasound may also be used to guide a needle during a breast biopsy. If a breast lump is found during an exam or something abnormal is seen on your
mammogram, an ultrasound can help show whether it is a solid mass or a cyst. Studies dating back to 1998 and as recent as last month have demonstrated that adding
breast ultrasound to mammography in women with dense tissue doubles the numbers
of early cancers found.
Performing hand held ultrasound requires experience and expertise of both the ultrasound technologist and radiologist scanning the Breast. In untrained hands cancers are missed (false negatives) and too many insignificant findings wind up being biopsied (false positives ). Screening ultrasounds unfortunately are not considered covered procedures by insurance and most facilities/hospitals do not offer screening breast ultrasound.
Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) – This new device uses the same technology but the transducer is automated, so it is less labor intensive and less dependent on the technologist’s skill. It requires less time to perform and takes the subjectivity out of scanning. As of now it has not been proven to find more cancers than hand held breast ultrasound when hand held is performed in experienced hands.This technology will likely revolutionize the way women with dense breast tissue are screened in high volume practices that do not have the resources or the experience in performing hand held breast ultrasound.
The downside of both hand held Ultrasound and ABUS is that it finds suspicious looking but non-cancerous tissue that sometimes triggers unnecessary biopsies called false positives. A certain percentage of false positives are necessary in order to find the small
cancers.
Breast Tomosynthesis – also called 3D mammography, utilizes digital mammography machines and acquires images at multiple angles. The images are then reconstructed reducing or eliminating tissue overlap in areas of concern on dense tissue.
It is a great technology for large volume practices and hospitals who perform screening mammograms that are read by the radiologist after the patient leaves the center. Tomosynthesis has been found to decrease patient call backs by 30 percent. The downside to tomosynthesis is that you are exposed to double the amount of radiation compared to a standard digital mammogram. Though it decreases patient call backs, studies have not yet demonstrated that tomosynthesis finds more cancers than mammography with the addition of ultrasound.

Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) – With MBI, a woman is given an injection of a short-lived radioactive agent. This material accumulates in tumor cells more than it does in normal cells. Using a gamma camera, tumors show up as hot spots, or black spots, on the resulting image. This technology does not look at the anatomy of the breast as a mammogram or breast ultrasound does; it examines the ACTIVITY of the breast tissue.
This is a great technology for women with dense breast tissue, high risk patients and women with breast implants. MBI is made by several different companies. I use a system made by DIIlon Diagnostics called Breast Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) in my practice. In a recent Mayo Clinic study comparing MBI with mammography, MBI detected three times as many cancers in women with dense breast tissue. MBI also demonstrated fewer false positives than Breast MRI. Studies have demonstrated that MBI is more sensitive in finding invasive lobular cancers which are often hidden on mammography, Ultrasound and in physical exams. The drawback of MBI is radiation exposure, limited availability and cost.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) –– Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive medical test that uses a powerful magnetic field, and produces detailed images of the breast tissue. It utilizes an intravenous injection of contrast. MRI does not use radiation. MRI looks at both structure and blood flow, with cancers showing increasedareas of blood flow.
MRI is very sensitive and so can reveal tumors not found on mammograms or ultrasound. The disadvantages are high false positive rate, high cost and for some women,
claustrophobia . In addition, MRI cannot be performed in women who have certain
metals such as pacemakers.

The post Important article by my friend, Dr. Lisa Weinstock-Finkel re latest ways to diagnose breast cancer in earliest stages. first appeared on Lemonade Fund.