Jan 16, 2006

Older Women May Have Poor Outcome With Breast Cancer

Breast cancer may have different behavior in older and younger women. A new study has shown that older women are much more likely to die from breast cancer compared to younger women. This study from University of Uppsala in Sweden showed that, those aged 70 to 84 years had up to a 13 percent lower chance of surviving breast cancer than those aged 50 to 69 years.

These findings are the results of 5 year follow up on a larger group of 9,000 women. Differences in diagnosis and treatment, rather than the presence of other illnesses, are sited as the main reason for this disparity in survival rates by the researchers.

They found that breast cancer diagnosis was often made later in older women and, once diagnosed, they were less likely to be fully investigated for their cancer and had less aggressive treatment than younger women, the study said.


Older women had larger tumors at the time of diagnosis and were less likely to have their cancer detected by mammography screening and to have the stage of disease identified. The older women also had fewer lymph nodes examined and had radiotherapy and chemotherapy less often than younger breast cancer patients, the study said.


The study also found that older patients were less likely to be offered breast-conserving surgery, but more likely to receive hormone treatment, such as tamoxifen, even if their tumors did not show signs of hormone sensitivity.

Sherin      

Do You Read All Of Our Cancer Blogs?

Do you read all of the blogs published by medicineworld.org? Many of our bloggers are busy keeping you updated on the various health related topics. We publish the following blogs at this time.

Cancer blog: I manage the cancer blog with lots of help and support form other bloggers. Through this cancer blog my friends and I try to bring stories of hope for patients with cancer. The cancer blog often republishes important blog posts from other cancer related blogs at Medicineworld.org. If you are searching for a blog that covers wide variety of cancer topics, this may be the one for you.

Breast cancer blog: Breast cancer blog is run by Emily and other bloggers and they bring you the latest stories, news and events that are related to breast cancer. Increasing awareness about breast cancer among women and in the general population is the main goal of this breast cancer blog.

Lung cancer blog: Lung cancer blog is managed by Scott with the help of other bloggers. Through this blog Scott and his friends constantly remind the readers about the dangers of smoking. It's a never-ending struggle against this miserable disease with which a social stigma of smoking is associated.

Colon cancer blog: Colon cancer blog is run by Sue and other bloggers. Sue brings a personal touch to the colon cancer blog since her mother died of colon cancer few years ago. She writes about stories, research news and advances in treatment related to colon cancer.

Prostate cancer blog: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men. American Cancer Society estimates that over 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer occur in the United state every year. This important blog about prostate cancer is run by Mark and other bloggers. This blog brings news, stories, and other personal observations related to prostate cancer.

Medicineworld.org publishes a diabetes watch blog and this blog is run by JoAnn other bloggers. This diabetes watch blog brings you the latest in the field of diabetes. This includes personal stories, advances in diagnosis and treatment, and other observations about diabetes. Improving awareness about diabetes is an important mission of this group.

Janet      

Breast cancer
Every year, more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. Breast cancer ranks second as the leading cause of cancer deaths in American women. Until recently breast cancer topped the list of leading causes of cancer deaths in women, but lately lung cancer has claimed the top position. If skin cancer is excluded, breast cancer is the commonest cancer among American women.