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Cancer care: Breast cancer

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Breast cancer support

Breast cancer support groups

A middle-aged woman and her elderly mother put there heads together and smile towards the camera.

Our breast cancer support groups welcome women in any phase of their breast cancer experience.

Breast cancer support groups in Minnesota

We have support groups that meet in these Minnesota cities:

Program for Women Newly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

This structured, four-session program is for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the last six months. It happens at Piper Breast Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 Resource Group

Some people may have an inherited risk for cancer because of mutations in one of two genes: BRCA-1, BRCA-2. Carrying a BRCA-1 or -2 mutation suggests a significant risk for breast, ovarian and other cancers for both men and women.

Knowing you have this risk can cause emotional and family issues. With the input of a patient focus group, the Virginia Piper Cancer Institute and Piper Breast Center began a resource group for individuals and families with BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 mutations. Meetings take place at Virginia Piper Cancer Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Hospital support services

It helps to know you're not alone. We encourage you and your family to gain support not only from our cancer experts, but also from others going through similar experiences.

Every Allina hospital offers these support services. Your doctor or nurse can tell you how to access them.

Nutrition therapy
Social services
Spiritual care
Financial services
Cancer rehabilitation

Additional support services

Breast cancer patient information

Bras, wigs and more

Items like wigs, hats and scarves help many women through breast cancer treatment. Specially fitted bras, camisoles or prostheses can help you feel more comfortable during and after treatment.

The cancer resource centers at these locations offer a selection of bras, wigs and more at no or little cost.

Abbott Northwestern Hospital (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Mercy Hospital (Coon Rapids, Minnesota)

Unity Hospital (Fridley, Minnesota)

Many insurance companies cover breast prostheses, bras and camisoles. Please check with your insurance company and contact a cancer resource center for a shop or fitter near you.

Low-cost or free mammograms

Our clinics and hospitals participate in the Minnesota Department of Health's Sage Screening Program. The effort offers free mammograms to uninsured and underinsured women.

Visit mnsage.com or call 1-800-643-2584.

Enhancing Connections Program

For women with breast cancer who have young children

If you have breast cancer, one of the many questions you may be facing is how to help your children cope.

Enhancing Connections is a program designed to assist you and your children. It was created as a response to the challenges mothers said they experienced in responding to their child during treatment and recovery from breast cancer.

To talk to someone further about receiving the program, call
612-863-1635.

The program will help you:

  • enhance communication with your child in talking about the breast cancer
  • draw out your child's feelings and concerns about the breast cancer
  • support your child and decrease his or her stress related to the breast cancer
  • add to your own skills and confidence in being supportive to your child related to your breast cancer.

Enhancing Connections is available to women who have children ages 5 to 12, and who are:

  • diagnosed with stage 0, 1, 2, 3 breast cancer
  • within one year of diagnosis
a woman with breast cancer embraces her daughter

Enhancing Connections is offered through the Piper Breast Center at the Virginia Piper Cancer Institute - Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Our counselors are specially trained clinicians who are experienced in working with families with children. The program consists of five clinic sessions at one- to two-week intervals with a psychologist or social worker.


" ...I couldn't seem to reason with her...It was just fear, I think, that she was feeling. She's that type of child. ..It's fear...and I don't think at the time that I really recognized it as much...Yeah, I wish I would have done it differently with her."

– Mother of an 8-year-old

" He doesn't talk about how things emotionally affect him very much. And sometimes I just had to guess. And even when you asked him, he could give concrete answers, but not processing how he was feeling, emotionally, about it."

– Mother of an 11-year-old

" Sometimes I don't think that I thoroughly got through to him. And so just didn't know exactly how to help him, emotionally."

– Mother of a 10-year-old

Genetic counseling for breast cancer

Three generations of women deal take the right steps to good breast health and breast cancer prevention

Worried about inheriting breast cancer or passing it on? Ask your doctor if genetic counseling is appropriate for you.

Genetic counseling is available at these hospitals:

Is genetic testing for breast cancer right for me?

Testing is only one part of the risk assessment.

To reliably assess cancer risk and develop a personal plan, your health care provider may give you a medical exam and ask for your personal and family history. He or she may refer you to a genetic counselor.

Some features of a personal or family history that may increase your health care provider's suspicion that a genetic test may help are:

  • breast cancer or other cancer at an earlier than typical age (usually younger than 45 or 50 for breast cancer)
  • breast and ovarian cancer in the same family or family member
  • men with breast cancer  
  • Jewish ancestry 
    •  
  • certain rare cancers and rare benign (non-cancer) growths.

How do genes affect breast cancer risk?

Changes in two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, have been linked to the tendency for inherited breast and ovarian cancer. But, they are not the only genes that are linked to the risk for these cancers.

Testing can be done to tell if you have an alteration on one of these genes. The tests cannot fully determine if you will or will not get a cancer. The tests may help clarify risks, may give relatives the ability to seek testing, and ensure a management plan that is right for you.

More about genetic counseling


Source: Allina Patient Education, Genetic Testing for Assessing the Risk of Hereditary Breast Cancer, can-ahc-14312 (09/09)
Reviewed by: Timothy Sielaff, MD, PhD, FACS, president, Virginia Piper Cancer Institute; Carol Bergen, RN, manager, Piper Breast Center; Deborah Day, MD, medical director, Piper Breast Center; Shari Baldinger, MS CGC, genetic counseling coordinator, Abbott Northwestern Hospital
First Published: 08/25/2009
Last Reviewed: 08/25/2009

American Cancer Society services

We work with the American Cancer Society to bring breast cancer support services to you and your family.

Look Good...Feel Better

A licensed cosmetologist can show you how to enhance your appearance and self-image during breast cancer treatment. Allina locations in these cities offer this service: