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)