LAKELAND, Fla. — Since its launch five months ago, Erin Hardin’s podcast “Study Radiation Therapy With Erin” has garnered hundreds of followers all across the globe.
"I now have listeners all over the world, and people are begging me to post things faster," said Erin Hardin, Radiation Therapy Program Director at Keiser University.
Hardin serves as the Radiation Therapy Program Director at Keiser University in Lakeland. She originally thought her podcast could help her students study, but now certified radiation therapists and even people undergoing radiation are tuning in.
Hardin said it's important that people know about what's going on with their cancer treatments.
"It gives patients the ability to make more educated decisions in their care. To really understand what radiation is, to really understand what it's going to do to their body and the side effects that come along with it," Hardin said.
Caring for patients with cancer has been a long-time goal of Hardin after watching her own aunt battle breast cancer.
"Radiation therapy is something that my ant went through. When I was in middle school, she went through different cancer treatments for breast cancer. Ever since, my family has been extremely involved in doing anything we can to help cancer patients," said Hardin.
One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer at some point in life, according to the American Cancer Society.
"The really incredible thing is we can find it so early, and the earlier that we find cancer, the better the outcome," said Dr. Rachel Burke, Breast Radiologist at Kay Meyer Breast Care Center.
Dr. Rachel Burke is the first person that a patient meets when they are diagnosed with cancer.
Although there has been an increase in the rate of breast cancer, Burke said the mortality rate has gone down.
"Mammography has decreased breast cancer deaths by about 40%. That's amazing. Mammography works plain and simple. It works," said Burke.
Doctors said advances in technology and increased health awareness have led to more younger people getting screened, resulting in early and increased detection, it also helped them detect even the smallest amounts of cancer.
"We're seeing tumors and breast cancer at such better resolution than we ever have with the mammography tools,” said Dr. John Cox, breast surgical oncologist at AdventHealth. “With advanced screening tools like MRI and molecular breast imaging that's coming along in the future, you're going to see an ever better outcome in the future for breast cancer."
