‘Cure in Our Lifetime’ Breakfast Makes Impact

Dynamic networkers Jody Goldstein and Jennifer Fink greeted 385 women at Atlanta’s Cure In Our Lifetime annual breakfast at the Cobb Energy Centre on Wednesday, March 25. The huge ballroom was awash is a sea of pink – outfits, linens and cupcake centerpieces.

Melissa Rosenbaum, breast cancer survivor and journalist, served as moderator. The program began with a Winship Cancer Institute of Emory physician panel, Dr. Kevin Kalinsky, Dr. Tara King, Dr. Neil Iyengar, and Dr. Jane Meisel, who all contributed cutting-edge advances in the entire field of breast cancer treatment, testing, and cross disciplinary collaboration. The Emory Winship Cancer Institute has conducted more than 400 active clinical trials and sees 21,000 new patients every year.

Some of the topics the panel covered were the possibility of using less chemotherapy with a risk-based approach, the age of starting mammography based on risk and lifestyle impact: fiber, microbiomes, the effects of obesity in body fat, using body composition vs. weight, and yoga. A comparison was made to the use of immunotherapy, similar to what President Jimmy Carter used as an infusion to “tell the body itself” to attack cancer cells, as being “on the table.”

Dosing matters; and it could be that lower dosages are being looked at with the potential of less side effects. They all agreed that the best objective was to stay out of the operating room and try to intervene on the front end.

Next up, Fink, a five-year survivor, and Goldstein, a 13-year survivor, introduced their daughters, Alex Fink and Graci Goldstein, who stated how grateful and proud they were of their mothers choosing to tackle problems and that “unfortunately, in women ages 20 to 49, breast cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States.”

The keynote speaker was Sarrah Strimel Bentley, a breast cancer survivor and mother (via surrogacy) who is an advocate for young women facing a breast cancer diagnosis. She has been featured on “Good Morning America,” “ABC News,” and in “Newsweek,” and has appeared in seven Broadway shows as a performer. Her personal journey inspires her to use the phrase “joy mining” as she lived each day getting through this hardship while she was engaged to a young man who stuck with her through it all, including harvesting one fertilized egg with low 20 percent odds, which became their son, Chance.

With quite a sense of humor, she mixed in a few curse words (after all, she’s from The Bronx) and talked about Atlanta’s pollen problem. She said the breast cancer women’s club is “the worst club, but with the best members.”

She explained that breast cancer is not a sprint, but a marathon, and took a year out of her life to get it back to normal-ish function. She said, “No matter how dim things look, you have to dig deep deeper in the s**t to come out of it.”

Bentley also relayed how she had to advocate fiercely to get quick testing and not wait for several months that was initially scheduled for her because “she was so young and didn’t have a family history [of breast cancer]. She said, “Family history doesn’t mean anything; 85 percent of breast cancers have no family history.”

Bentley shared how she sang and danced to the musical artist Pitbull to get through 28 rounds of therapy, having her ovaries removed, her breasts “popped up,” and eloping in California on the balcony of her real first date.

Goldstein and Fink closed the event by presenting oodles of generous door prizes and graciously thanking the brimming crowd. Goldstein told the AJT, “As breast cancer survivors, Jennifer and I remain deeply committed to the breast cancer and Jewish genetics communities. This year’s event had record attendance.”