Breast Cancer Treatment and Guidelines in Older Women

Many people in today’s society are getting cancer from many things we consume. There are many methods and results I will be talking about. There was a study population of 1,568 that were 55 years old or older. This study was happening at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. They treated these people at the center during the time 1997-2002 for stage Stage IIA and I. Stage I and Stage IIIA are cancers that are present and the higher the number the larger the cancer or tumor has spread. What the center did was look at the treatments to determine guidelines. The treatments they used to determine were definitive surgical therapy, adjuvant radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery, post mastectomy radiation, adjuvant chemotherapy, and adjuvant hormonal therapy. Age, level of education, race, marital status, and disease score were included in all final people was an impact in the treatment. “Treatment dates were used to determine which guideline was applicable at the time a patient was being treated if there were any changes in treatment recommendations.” (By) Accurate surgical treatment was characterized as lumpectomy, fractional mastectomy, segmental mastectomy, altered radical mastectomy, subcutaneous mastectomy, skin-sparing mastectomy, or radical mastectomy. Many calculated investigations were performed to decide the process between age and rule agreement, change of potential factor.

Results

In the result about 1,568 women were included in the study. Ladies at 65 years old or older were more likely to be white, unmarried, and have only a high school education. As they believed, each older group of women had a higher had a higher percentage of women with sufficiently conditions, steady with the ageing process. “Significant differences were detected in estrogen receptor status, nuclear grade, and presence of intramammary lymphatic invasion, with older women less likely to have estrogen receptor-negative tumors, high-grade tumors, or tumors with intramammary lymphatic invasion.” (By) “The results were high for surgical therapy (90.4%), adjuvant radiation after breast-conserving surgery (94.2%), and adjuvant hormonal therapy (93.7%). However, overall concordance was lower for adjuvant chemotherapy (70.7%) and for adjuvant post mastectomy radiation (54.1%).” (By) Surgical therapy, adjuvant radiation after breast conservation, adjuvant chemotherapy, and adjuvant hormonal therapy was a low score for women.

In univariate examination, low tumor arranges, tall score, and understanding age 75 year old or more seasoned was related with need of conclusive surgical treatment. Ladies with stage II or III infection at determination had 4.33 times the chances of having conclusive surgery compared with ladies with organize I disease. “ Women who were age 75 years or older were also significantly less likely to receive definitive surgical therapy.” (By M.D. Anderson Cancer Center). A disease score of 1 to 2 was too related with a diminished probability of being treated with radiation.

Additionally a disease score of 3 or higher was related with diminished chances of accepting radiation, but was not factually critical. Nonwhite race was associated with decreased probability of being treated with radiation after breast-conserving surgery. “In the unadjusted analysis of concordance with chemotherapy guidelines, higher clinical stage, lower comorbidity scores, estrogen receptor-negative tumors, high nuclear grade, and younger age were all significantly associated with guideline concordance.” (By M.D. Anderson Cancer Center) Ladies who had tumors that communicated the estrogen receptor were essentially less likely to be given chemotherapy than ladies with estrogen receptor-negative tumors. “After adjusting for other known predictive factors, low tumor stage and advanced age were still significant predictors of discordance with hormone therapy guidelines, although marital status was not.” (By M.D. Anderson Cancer Center)

Stress and Self esteem during treatment

The essay I will be talking about is a study on “identify common stressors faced by breast cancer survivors involved in dragon boating, (2) examine the conceptual and statistical factor groupings of the stressors, (3) identify differences in stressor factors based on treatment characteristics, and (4) examine the associations between stressor factors and two indicators of self-esteem.” (By Journal of Women’s Health)

Many women 1 in 9 will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime and 1 in 27 women will die from breast cancer. “Over the past 20 years, survival rates have improved considerably throughout the western world, contributing to many women living with the identity of a cancer survivor.” (By Journal of Women’s Health) A popular activity that many breast cancer survivors is dragon boating. “In dragon boating is associated with stressful experiences, including body-related anxiety and reminders of death, illness, and recurrence.” (By Journal of Women’s Health)

The main focus on the study is how dragon boating racing is in common with stress and self esteem with breast cancer survivors. In the study there were 470 females that were in dragon boating and were given ten dollars to participate in the study. The women were between ages 20 and 80 years old. “Social stressors include making social connections with other survivors, difficulty discussing health information with family or friends, experiencing stress in social settings, and loss of friendships and social connections.” (By Journal of Women’s Health) The encounters of stress may not be the same for breast cancer survivors have experienced particular cancer medications and for those ladies who were analyzed with cancer for five years long compared with ladies analyzed not long ago.

“Secondary aim of the current study was to quantitatively examine differences in stress experiences for diverse cancer characteristics, such as treatment types and time since diagnosis.” (By Journal of Women’s Health) During this study they had had this dragon boating group fill out this questionnaire. The 28 stressors physical, emotional, and intentions.

“Additional stressors were participating in physical activity, participating in dragon boating, feelings of increased muscularity, and forming relationships with other survivors involved in physical activity.” (By Journal of Women’s Health) On the questionnaire when it asked about how often they are stressed and peoples answers ranged from 5 points scale from never to often. The next question was “if you have experienced breast cancer, how positive or negative are your emotions related to this experience?” (By Journal of Women’s Health) People had a score of -3 to positive 3. “Total score was used to examine the possible grouping of stressors, as scale scores (as opposed to factor scores) are easier to interpret and can allow comparisons with future studies using this scale.” (By Journal of Women’s Health)

Self worth and self-esteem were made into a questionnaire from self-description questionnaires. “Participants were asked to think about themselves both physically and generally and respond to the items on 6- point scales ranging from 1 (false) to 6 (true).” (By Journal of Women’s Health) The highest score was on psychological wellbeing. Loss of companions or social associations, restricted contact with the healthcare framework, feeling underweight, and having lymphedema were never experienced by the slightest half of the ladies. “Survivors reported higher scores for exercise-related stressors than for the other categories of stressor, with these stressors being primarily positively appraised by the women.” (By Journal of Women’s Health) Lastly many women got high scores on physical self worth.

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