Breast Cancer

Older women who have breast cancer are less likely to survive if they also diagnosed with another disease, according to a survey released today sweep. Their influence on survival has been said: The researchers found that each state is associated with death from any cause, including cancer and lower survival. Especially patients with tumors of stage 1 and one or more additional conditions were the survival rate was equal to or worse than their counterparts who had stage 2 tumors, and no other condition. About half of older women surveyed had at least one of the 13 additional conditions such as cancer previous myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, diabetes, liver disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Wort McCaskill-Stevens and Dr. Jeff Abrams, National Cancer Institute, said the study has important implications for clinical care of patients with breast cancer over 65 years, representing more than half of the 200 000 women with breast cancer in the United States each year. Jenna Patnaik, PhD, University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora, and years of study co-author, suggested that the study has important implications for how patients are treated. "Management of risk factors associated with personal health problems, including cardiovascular disease, can help improve overall survival," They said that doctors can reduce the treatment or reduce its intensity in patients with various conditions. He also stressed that there could be a biological interaction between cancer and other diseases that affect the effectiveness of certain treatments. "The results are provocative, suggesting that attention must be individualized in patients with comorbidities and disease must be co-managed between the oncologist and primary care physicians," wrote the two doctors. Patnaik said the study should not in any way that the signal from the older women with breast cancer and other diseases should lose hope. "Although cancer is clearly a very serious disease is likely to survive," he said. "Try to anticipate the diagnosis of cancer to motivate to adopt a healthy lifestyle. It is more important, including exercise and healthy eating into your daily routine and stop smoking if you smoke now. "The researcher’s analyzed data from more than 64,000 U.S. women aged 66 who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2000.