Younger Women May Have Persistent..........

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Younger Women May Have Persistent Physical, Psychological Problems

Years After Breast Cancer

LOS ANGELES, CA -- November 18, 2003 -- Very young women diagnosed

with breast cancer may be more likely to have persisting physical and

psychological problems years after cancer, according to a new study

by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center.

In a survey of nearly 600 women who were all age 50 or younger when

they first were diagnosed with breast cancer, researchers found that

the majority of women report they have a good quality of life an

average of six years after their diagnosis. Yet, the youngest women

in the study -- those who were between 25 and 34 when they were

diagnosed -- showed greater changes in energy and poorer emotional

functioning than the women in the study who were older at diagnosis.

The study was published in the November 15 issue of the Journal of

Clinical Oncology.

" There is a positive message here that overall function is going to

be good for the majority of younger women who survive breast cancer.

Yet there are subgroups who may be at more risk for problems, " said

Dr. Ganz, director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and

Control at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and lead author of the

study. " The youngest women report persistent energy loss and

psychological difficulties. They are a group doctors and others need

to target for intervention. "

Other problems include early menopause, loss of ability to have

children and depression. " It is important for us to acknowledge that

many symptoms and problems persist long beyond the acute phase of

breast cancer treatment, " Ganz said.

This is the first large, multiethnic study to have detailed

descriptive information about what younger breast cancer survivors

are experiencing.

" You can imagine if you get cancer at 30 years-of-age and no one else

in your family has had it, and you have to go through all this

treatment with uncertainty about the outcome, that there's going to

be a sort of sword of Damocles hanging over your head, " Ganz

said. " So that's what these findings talk about; for these younger

women especially, there are fear and vulnerability, feelings of

being 'out of control' and not being able 'to trust the world,' even

after they have successfully completed treatment. "

" At first it is hard because the only thing you can focus on is

getting through the treatments -- and hanging on to your life, " said

, a study participant who was 37 when she was diagnosed

with breast cancer. " But once that is over, you begin to realize the

more subtle changes and losses that come along with the diagnosis.

For me, I lost my fertility, but didn't really get to deal with it

until later. "

Now, 10 years after treatment, the Santa resident is still

learning to cope with those changes. " Sometimes, even though it is

behind me now, it is still tough to get up in the morning and deal

with the little aggravations of life while trying to remember and

hang on to the big picture: I had cancer and I have survived. "

More than 200,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with

breast cancer in 2003 and of those, 25 percent will be women under

age 50. The National Cancer Institute estimates that there are about

2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States today.

" The other thing that we examined was whether or not there were any

other factors that predicted how women assessed their overall health.

What we found was that women who were college graduates or had higher

education perceived themselves as having better health, while women

who had gone through menopause as a result of the cancer thought

their health was poorer, " Ganz said.

The study also supports some results seen in prior studies conducted

by Ganz and her colleagues. " Previous studies suggested that African-

American women reported better quality of life after breast cancer

than other ethnic groups, and experienced more positive meaning from

the cancer experience. The current study confirmed the earlier

findings and to see those results in a second independent sample

suggests it is an accurate observation, " Ganz said.

SOURCE: University of California - Los Angeles

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