Although the percentage of women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40 is much lower (only about 7%) than the overall rates of diagnosis, sadly, these cancers are often not found in their early stages and can prove to be much harder to treat. One reason these early onset cancers are more difficult to diagnosis is because the breast tissue of younger women is generally more dense than that of women over the age of 40. There is also sometimes a “denial” aspect to the early diagnosis of breast cancer in younger women. It seems that many younger women ignore some of the early warning signs, unknowingly believing that they are too young to have cancer. For these reasons, diagnosis is often not made in the early stages of the disease (when treatment is much more likely to be successful), but rather in later stages that often prove to be more difficult to treat successfully.
In recent years the guidelines for when a woman should have their first mammogram has fluctuated quite a bit, making it even more confusing for young women to make informed decisions about their personal breast health. Below are some guidelines that young women can use in screening for breast cancer.
Sometimes less is more, and in the case of breast cancer surgery this seems to the case. In a just released study on women with breast cancer, it turns out that the removal of cancerous lymph nodes may not always be necessary. The results of this study will facilitate major changes in the way breast cancer is treated, and could be hard for a lot of women to accept at first; since most of us are programmed to want all cancer removed. But it turns out that about 20% of breast cancer patients who have cancer in their lymph nodes and who would normally have those nodes removed, will not need this aggressive surgery.
The new study concludes that the decision of whether or not to remove the lymph nodes should now be based on what stage the breast cancer is in, rather than the finding of cancer in the nodes.
The new results do not apply to all patients, only to women whose disease and treatment meet the criteria in the study.
The tumors were early, at clinical stage T1 or T2, meaning less than two inches across. Biopsies of one or two armpit nodes had found cancer, but the nodes were not enlarged enough to be felt during an exam, and the cancer had not spread anywhere else.
So why is this such an important discovery in the treatment of breast cancer?
It’s because in patients where the removal of these nodes do not change the outcome of survival or re-occurrence, the benefits of removal do not outweigh the risks. Not only is the removal of these lymph nodes very painful to recover from, but the complications (such as infection and lymph edema) can be very serious, even disabling. So if doctors can eliminate this complication for over 40,000 women a year, that is a very good thing.
The study, involving nearly 900 women who were treated at 115 sites across the country, found that those who did have their lymph nodes removed were no more likely to survive five years after the surgery than those who did not, the researchers reported in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Even though the cancerous lymph nodes will not be removed during surgery for patients meeting the new criteria, the cancer in those nodes is eradicated when the patient is given chemotherapy after surgery.
Removing the cancerous lymph nodes proved unnecessary because the women in the study had chemotherapy and radiation, which probably wiped out any disease in the nodes, the researchers said. Those treatments are now standard for women with breast cancer in the lymph nodes, based on the realization that once the disease reaches the nodes, it has the potential to spread to vital organs and cannot be eliminated by surgery alone.
Experts say that the new findings, combined with similar ones from earlier studies, should change medical practice for many patients.
What do you think about this new study and how it will affect the treatment of breast cancer? Do you agree with the findings of the study? What would you want to do if you fell into this new criteria, and the recommendation was to not remove the lymph nodes? Please let us know your thoughts in comments.
Understanding The Latest Research About Hormone Replacement Therapy
For years there have been suspicions and studies linking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to breast cancer, but new research is now definitively linking HRT to an increase in breast cancer death rates.
TIME recently reported on a new study that suggests heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers. However, as usual with these studies, it’s not as cut and dry as the title suggests.
This latest study is a bitvery misleading, especially for women. First, it had less than 2,000 participants. Second, only 37% of the participants were women (that’s just a few hundred women). Considering the fact that there have been other studies on the harmful effects of alcohol on women, and that these studies have had over a million women participants, I’m not inclined to take this latest study very seriously. It certainly wouldn’t be advised that a woman start drinking or increase her drinking based on this study.
Here are a few facts about the dangerous effects that alcohol (even in small amounts) can have on women…
For every person who watches the trailer, Showtime will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the American Cancer Society…
Join the American Cancer Society and Showtime’s The Big C in the movement to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. In the new series on the pay-cable network, actress Laura Linney stars as Cathy Jamison, a reserved, stifled, Minneapolis schoolteacher who receives the life-changing news that she has cancer. From that moment on, she decides to make some drastic, long-overdue adjustments to the way she is living her life. The Big C premieres at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Monday, August 16 on Showtime.
You can learn more about The Big C and help the American Cancer Society save lives from cancer by watching this exclusive trailer for the show. For every person who watches the trailer, Showtime will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the American Cancer Society to help people stay well and get well, to find cures, and to fight back against a disease that has already taken too much. Together, we can make a world with less cancer and more birthdays a reality!
How Much Is Your Life Worth? Even with insurance you may be unable to afford cancer treatment.
There is never a good time to find out you have cancer, but now may prove to be the worst time. With the economy and health care crisis making day to day life more costly for many Americans, a cancer diagnosis can be financially devastating. At the exact time a cancer patient needs to find the strength to fight for their life, they now need to worry just as much about whether or not they can afford treatment. There’s just something fundamentally wrong with that.
The American Cancer Society has released the results of a recent survey that indicates nearly half of cancer patients under age 65 have had difficulty paying for health care costs such as health insurance premiums, co-pays and prescription drugs in the past two years, and that one-third of those currently in active cancer treatment have put off some type of health care in the past year.
Other findings:
One in three cancer patients under age 65 struggles to pay for basic necessities — such as food, heat and housing — and other bills in the past two years.
One in five has used up all or most of savings.
What I find even more despicable, is how insured patients are being denied the most cutting edge treatments because their insurance carriers think they are too expensive.
Celebrating Women Surviving, Inspiring and Blogging with Cancer
In the United States their are over 11 million people surviving cancer, and chances are you even know one of them. In June we celebrate those cancer survivors. This post will highlight the many women who are surviving and blogging cancer. These are women with extraordinary strength, who inspire us all to live each day to our fullest. I hope you’ll take some time to check out their blogs and their stories of survival. And if you know a woman blogging through cancer, please take a minute to leave their link in comments.
I was honored to be asked to attend the Avon Foundation’s Breast Cancer Forum last week in San Francisco. And I have a lot of information to share with everyone. I’m going to start with an interview I did with Dr. Laura Esserman. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, she was one of the researchers behind the controversial change in mammogram recommendations. I wrote about it for BlogHer back in November in a post titled…
I guess the title of the post speaks to where I stand on the issue.
Although my feelings on this topic are contrary to Dr. Esserman’s point of view, I do think that she believes she has a woman’s best interest at heart.
Dr. Laura Esserman, a nationally known breast surgeon, is the director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the Mount Zion campus. Her work is devoted to developing new, more effective ways to care for and empower breast cancer patients during treatment and to tailor treatments using biology, personal preference and constant feedback regarding outcomes of care.
Shortly after Dr. Esserman spoke about her study to the attendees of the breast cancer forum, I had an opportunity to interview her.
Are women just too emotional for mammograms before 50?
Unless you’ve been under a rock all week, you have probably heard about the government task force that has recommended new guidelines for breast cancer prevention. It goes something like this…
If you’re younger than 50 or older than 75, you no longer have to worry your pretty little head about breast cancer, or getting those pesky boob squishing mammograms.
Hallelujah! I wonder how long it will be before we go back to giving women Valium for chest pain? Who needs preventative care when it’s not 100% effective anyway? Hell, just go ahead and give us anti-anxiety meds for all of our ills…I’ll betcha we save a bundle on healthcare costs.Women already outlive men by a bunch of years, maybe this will even things out a bit…Isn’t equality what we’ve been cryin about all these years?
OK, I know, I went a little too far with my analogy. But seriously, this is what’s going on…
On Monday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended that routine mammograms start at age 50 instead of 40, that women receive the test every two years as opposed to annually, and that physicians no longer train women to perform breast self-examination.
Imaging centers saw cancellations for mammograms more than double since the news of these “recommendations” were announced. I wonder how many of those women may actually have breast cancer right now and will miss the opportunity for early detection and treatment?
I have to admit, I’ve been having a lot of cynical thoughts running through my head since I heard this disturbing news. Like…
I can’t help but think that if the pharmaceutical companies were profiting from mammograms these recommendations would be suggesting that they begin ten years earlier rather than later.
And then there’s this one…
If a healthcare reform bill is going to benefit the insurance industry (and it must – considering all their lobbying dollars), then insurance companies need guidelines that will allow them to reduce the amount of money they shell out for quality health care.
I know these are just thoughts, but when government panels are established to become corporate bean counters of women’s health policy, it makes me a little angry.
The thing is, when it comes to healthcare for women – I want to see more choices for women, not less.
Check out this video, it really does a nice job of addressing the problems associated with these new guidelines…
Was I the only one who was completely shocked to find out that this so called panel of experts had three representatives from insurance companies, but no experts in oncology or breast cancer?
Where do you stand on healthcare reform? It’s a hot-button political issue that has strong opinions on both sides. And with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it seems appropriate to address how healthcare reform could affect the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
My name is Catherine Morgan...I'm a writer, nurse, and mother. I'm also a contributing editor for BlogHer Health & Wellness.
Welcome to my blog...I write a little bit of everything with an emphasis on healthy living, inspiration, nutrition, and health news. I hope you'll find topics that interest you here, and I would love to know what you think in comments. Thanks for stopping by.
