To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Young Breast Cancer Patients Should Receive Chemotherapy, Say Researchers URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/165C4E.htm Doctor's Guide February 18, 2000
LONDON, UK -- February 18, 2000 -- All young women under the age of 35 years with breast cancer should be regarded as high risk patients and be offered chemotherapy after surgery (adjuvant cytotoxic treatment), say researchers from Denmark in this week's BMJ. Dr Niels Kroman from the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre along with colleagues from Copenhagen studied the treatment and outcome of 10,356 women with breast cancer who were less than 50 years old at the time of their diagnosis. They found that overall, young women who were diagnosed with 'low risk' breast cancers [as classified by the authors] and who did not receive adjuvant treatment, had a significantly increased risk of dying as compared to middle-aged women with 'low risk' breast cancer. The risk, they report, increases the younger the patients' age at diagnosis (women under the age of 35 who hadn't received adjuvant treatment were more than twice as likely to die as women aged 45 to 49 years at diagnosis). The authors say that the negative effect of young age on a woman's prognosis of breast cancer (a phenomenon which has been reported in previous studies) seems to only be true among those women who have not received adjuvant cytotoxic treatment. Among women who received this therapy, age did not have a significant effect on prognosis, say Kroman et al. They say that their results cannot be taken as direct evidence that young patients with low risk disease will benefit from adjuvant cytotoxic treatment, however, based on other recent research they are confident that low risk tumours will respond well to such treatment, leading to a better prognosis for this group of women. Kroman et al conclude that young women with breast cancer, on the basis of age alone, should be regarded as high risk patients and be given adjuvant cytotoxic treatment. Related links: British Medical Journal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.