More young people have breast cancer
More young people have breast cancer
JAKARTA (JP): The risk of breast cancer in younger women is
increasing due to changing lifestyles, experts said yesterday.
Daniel Makes, a radiologist at the Cipto Mangunkusumo
Hospital, told The Jakarta Post during a seminar on the early
detection and treatment of breast cancer that the peak age of
sufferers is getting younger.
"The tendency is probably caused by the diet factor," he said.
The seminar was sponsored by the Dharmais Cancer Hospital, the
Indonesian Cancer Foundation, the Indonesian Oncologists
Association, the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, the School of
Medicine of the University of Indonesia and the Canadian
International Development Agency.
Makes, a speaker at the seminar, advised women to examine
their breasts every month, about ten days after menstruation, to
check for lumps.
"We hope that starting from the age of 35, women will examine
themselves to avoid cancer by detecting it as earliest as
possible," he said.
In Indonesia, Muchlis Ramli said in his speech, breast cancer
is the second most dangerous after cervix cancer.
Breast cancer sufferers are 11.57 percent of all cancer
patients here, while cervix cancer has attacked 18.41 percent of
the patients.
More than 50 percent of cancer sufferers consult doctors after
the disease has reached an advanced stage.
"This is probably caused by a lack of awareness about the
disease," said Muchlis, an oncologist at the same hospital.
Makes added that the problem of diagnosing the cancer is more
complex in women with silicon breast implants, which make
accurate mammography testing difficult.
According to both experts, the peak age of the disease is
still between the age of 40 and 50.
Stress
Muchlis said that stress and consuming too much food with
cholesterol can exacerbate the genetic predisposition factor.
"One's lifestyle won't cause cancer but only increase the
risk," he said.
He said that the survival expectation of cancer patients in
the first stage is quite high.
"After they have therapy, about 90 percent of the first-stage
sufferers have no further complaints, " Muchlis said.
He said the third and fourth-stage sufferers have less than a
20 percent chance of living beyond five years after the disease
was developed.
For women in the first and second stages, Muchlis suggested
that the patients undergo breast-cutting surgery.
However, with new surgery technology, Muchlis expressed the
hope that first and second-stage cancer sufferers will not have
to undergo breast cutting in the future.
Ivo A. Olivotto, an oncologist at the British Columbia Cancer
Agency, informed the seminar of a new method in cancer surgery
called "breast conservation".
"The method is done by removing the lump from the breast but
not removing the whole breast," he said.
The biggest chance of a cure is only for those in the first
and second stages, he added.
"The problem with breast cancer is to try to control the
disease in the breast area and to cure the cancer somewhere else
in the body," he said.
According to Olivotto, if the cancer is small and can still be
found in the breast tissue, surgeons should not remove the breast
if possible.
"If the cancer involves two-thirds of the breast -- usually in
the first and second stage -- we can still remove the lump and
leave enough breast tissue behind so it still looks like a
breast," he said.
According to Olivotto, the method has worked very well.
"About 95 percent of the patients don't have further trouble,"
he said.
While there is no guarantee that the disease will vanish
forever, he added that the new method will help prevent the
cancer from coming back. (05)