New Study finds Women with Breast cancer are Afraid Of Cancer in other areas.

by PRC Agency PR

New research suggests that many women treated for early breast cancer are afraid of the chances that the cancer will spread to other organs, and these fears are diminishing their quality of life.

The study involved more than 1,000 women newly diagnosed with either very early breast cancer, known as DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), or low-risk invasive cancer (LRI). All were at low risk for what's called distant recurrence—cancer spreading to organs throughout the body.

“More than one-third of those with DCIS and one quarter of those with low-risk invasive tumors overestimated the risk for recurrence”, said Sarah Hawley, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Even women with a very positive outlook after treatment, significantly overestimated the risks, Hawley said. "The women provided a risk number estimate more than double the actual risk," Hawley continued. “The more patients were exaggerated and worried about risks of cancer, the more it affected quality of life of the women”.

Doctors differentiate between local recurrence, when cancer returns to the site of the first tumor or close to it, and distant recurrence, or metastatic breast cancer, when cancer spreads to a different organ. Metastatic breast cancer is not curable and needs to be managed as a chronic disease, according to the Johns Hopkins Breast Center.

In this study, Hawley focused only on fear of distant recurrence. She considered a perceived risk of more than 10 percent for DCIS and more than 20 percent for low-risk invasive cancer as an overestimate.

Less-educated women were more likely than those with more schooling to fear the worst. Those who overestimated risk were two to three times more likely to worry about recurrence than those who did not overestimate, Hawley found. Some of the women also lower mental health and physical health scores, she said.

Hawley believes doctors can help patients understand their odds for wide-range spreading of cancer by using both numbers or percentages and wording such as "low" or "moderate," Hawley said. Also, women can become educated and ask physicians to explain the risks terms that will not frighten the patients, Hawley suggested.

The study findings did not surprise Dr. Linda Bosserman, clinical assistant professor of medicine at the City of Hope Medical Group, in Rancho Cucamonga, California. "These findings are consistent with other studies which consistently show patients overestimate the risk of cancer recurrence," said Bosserman.

Hawley and Bosserman agreed that doctors should strive to be specific with each patient about individual risk. "It can be a hard discussion," Bosserman said.

But knowing that the recurrence risk with early breast cancer is often low "can be a relief and often also helps patients better weigh the risks and benefits" of therapies, explained Bosserman.

Some patients fear even slight risk and choose "every possible therapy" that might reduce their risks. Others, when given appropriate information, are able to weigh the pros and cons of each course of action, Bosserman said.

Hawley presented the findings recently at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

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