New
Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
readers...roll mouse over, click on
highlighted links in stories to review items
from Amazon
Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Radiation
beneficial for older Breast Cancer patients
Newswise — A breast
cancer patient’s age alone should not
determine whether or not she receives
standard breast-conservation treatments,
including a lumpectomy and radiation
therapy; however, if additional health
problems (comorbidities) are present,
treatments should be individualized based on
age and the type of comorbidities, according
to a study in the International Journal for
Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the
official journal of the American Society for
Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.
The occurrence of
breast cancer in women increases as women
age.
According to the
National Cancer Institute’s SEER Cancer
Statistics Review, women between the ages of
75 and 79 have the highest incidence of
breast cancer diagnoses at 497 cases per
100,000 people.
Along with cancer, most
women in this age group are dealing with
additional health problems. According to a
1999 women’s health and aging study in the
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, the
majority of older patients diagnosed with
cancer have at least one other medical
condition and more than half of patients
with cancer over the age of 65 have three or
more associated medical conditions.
This study, conducted
by the departments of Radiation Oncology,
Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and
Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, at the
University of Pennsylvania School Of
Medicine in Philadelphia, sought to
determine the impact of these additional
medical problems on breast cancer patients
who receive the same standard treatments as
patients with no additional medical problems
and if old age is a reason to deny some
standard treatments.
Most randomized trials
that compare outcomes of breast-conserving
surgery with and without radiation
consistently show more positive outcomes
when radiation is used; however, most of the
trials exclude women older than 70 years old
so there is not a lot of data on the impact
of radiation on older women.
Between 1979 and 2002,
238 women, 70 years old and older, with
Stage I or II invasive carcinoma of the
breast received breast-conservation therapy
and their outcomes were compared by age
groups and comorbidities.
Most of the patients
studied had mild comorbidities.
The researchers found
that the number of deaths from breast cancer
among the patients studied was similar to
the number seen among all age groups of
patients without additional medical
problems.
The researchers also
found that the majority of elderly women
with early-stage breast cancers and mild
comorbidities actually benefited from the
use of radiation and had minimal side
effects.
The overall survival
rates for the patients in the five- and
10-year follow-up periods were 80 percent
and 50 percent, respectively; however, more
deaths during the 10-year period were caused
by intercurrent diseases than breast cancer.
“Doctors need to
understand that comorbidities should be the
determining factor in deciding an older
patient’s course of treatment, not age,”
said Eleanor Harris, M.D., clinical director
of radiation oncology at the Moffitt Cancer
Center in Tampa, Fla.
“There is a sense in
the field that elderly women need less
treatment than younger women, but we should
not be under treating women simply because
they have passed the age of 70.”
ASTRO is the largest
radiation oncology society in the world,
with 9,000 members who specialize in
treating patients with radiation therapies.
As the leading organization in radiation
oncology, biology and physics, the Society
is dedicated to improving patient care
through education, clinical practice,
advancement of science and advocacy.
...
...
...