Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Share your knowledge. Make a difference.

Alternative breast cancer treatment

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 0 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #25713 in Health, #251838 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

Breast Cancer - What If You are Too Old Or Too Sick For A Breast Cancer Surgery?

Breast cancer does not stop when you get older. If you are young and healthy then your chances are good. You can do treatment, take medication and live with the side effects because you are otherwise healthy.

But what when you get diagnosed with cancer when your overall health is bad or when you are over sixty already?

Sometimes life can be very hard and unfair to us. But is cancer not always unfair? If a woman gets breast cancer at a young age then we call it a tragedy. And it truly is.

Is it less of a tragedy when a woman at the age of sixty gets breast cancer just because her career may probably already lie behind her and her children have already grown up?

I think this is not a discussion we should have at all. These older women still pay a very high price. Because of their age and because of the fact that they are probably not as healthy as a twenty or thirty year old woman, their chances are lower.

What if the poor health condition does not allow a surgery? There are many women in this situation. Their only chance is probably a radiation treatment and some drugs. What are their chances?

It all depends on the stage, hormone status, if the cancer has spread and where etc. We all know that. But often it is the hard true facts that limit or destroy any hope that is left. Many women today can put all hope into treatment. If they take you that, what is left?

Highly Recommended Reading:

Treatment For Breast Cancer

Signs And Symptoms Of Breast Cancer

Roselyn Capen is an expert author on breast cancer topics. Her articles about breast cancer symptoms, causes and treatments have been published on numerous web sites, forums, blogs and ezines all over the Internet.

New Flickr Breast Cancer Photos 

Sometimes Life Is About Clearing The Next Boulder by Arkansas ShutterBug

Sometimes Life Is Ab...

In hospital with Neutropenia by jennifrog

In hospital with Neu...

Recovering from surgery by jennifrog

Recovering from surg...

Eeeek! by jennifrog

Eeeek!

The madness sets in! by jennifrog

The madness sets in!

Breast cancer vids 

Breast Cancer

New systems are improving health care delivery for women concerned about breast cancer and breast related diseases. Join us for an overview of new developments including MRI as a diagnostic tool, genetic testing, new reconstruction procedures, and current and upcoming clinical trials related to breast disease. Series: "Women's Health Today" [8/2006] [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 11115]

Runtime: 52:09 | 6400 views | 9 Comments

 

powered by YouTube

New Guestbook 

Like this lens? Want to share your feedback, or just give a thumbs up? Be the first to submit a blurb!

X
roselyncapen

About roselyncapen

The stage of breast cancer when cancer cells do not remain in the original cancer site and spread out to other parts of the body is called metastatic breast cancer. This is the stage when the cancer is fully advanced. Even if you have been successfully treated for breast cancer, there is a chance that some cancer cells do not die, and later spread out through blood and lymphatic vessels to other body organs. This process is known as metastasis of breast cancer.

Metastatic breast cancer can either recur, that is, the treatment for breast cancer may have completed, but the cancer cells that escaped from being killed make the cancer recur, or may happen during the course of treatment, when the cancer is so aggressive that it spreads out despite of the treatments, or, in some cases when diagnosis is very late, and the cancer has spread out, metastatic might be the very first diagnosis.

Metastasis usually occurs in bones, and organs like lungs and brains. Unfortunately, breast cancer has the highest chance of metastasizing. If you have had breast cancer, and later develop another form of cancer, in all probability, it is breast cancer recurring. The fortunate side of this is that breast cancer is very much treatable. However, if you develop breast cancer again in the breast that was not diseased earlier, it might just be a new cancer.

Another important piece of information is that three out of ten breast cancer patients later develop metastatic breast cancer. If no organ of yours has been affected by the metastatic disease, if cancer cells regress somewhat after treatment for metastatic cancer and if your cancer cells have the female estrogen and progesterone hormones, your cancer has a higher chance of being treated.

Metastatic breast cancer, owing to its nature, requires extensive treatment. Therapies like chemotherapy, hormonal treatment, immune therapy alone with regular mammograms, ultrasounds, CT scans, MRIs, bone scans etc. are necessary. The treatments can be purpose-specific. For treating the whole body, systemic therapies have to be implemented; for treatment of specific organs, local treatments like mastectomy and lumpectomy are done, and for alleviating pain, therapies along with oral aspirin intake are adopted.

Metastatic breast cancer is the worst phase of your cancer, and you should know that scientists are working day and night to invent better methods for prolonging and normalizing your life. Because the prognosis is not usually determined, you have to decide when to end your treatment. Ending treating is necessary because a longer treatment comes with more and more side-effects. Consult as many people as you want, never hesitate to ask your doctor any question, any number of times, but in the end, it all comes down to you to make the decision.

roselyncapen's Pages

See all of roselyncapen's pages

X

Happy holidays!

The red bow is special. Whenever you see a red bow on a Squidoo page, it means the page is raising money for charity.

Buy something from the page, and we'll automatically make a donation to charity, thanks to you.