Breast Cancer Awareness for Seniors
It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month — and we'd like to take this opportunity to consider the special issues faced by our senior loved ones in regard to this terrible disease.
Breast Cancer and Seniors - The Reality
More than 30 million women in the US have or have had breast cancer. Of those, more than 50% are over 60 — and more than 20% are over 70. Yet despite such representation among patients, under-diagnosis and under-treatment of the elderly remain serious issues that can lead to poorer outcomes for seniors. Meanwhile, clinical trials often exclude older patients, making age-specific treatment recommendations difficult.
Do not accept this situation for your older loved ones! There are ways you can help to offset the diagnosis and treatment imbalance.
How to Help Your Senior Loved One with Breast Cancer
First, make sure that your senior loved one understands that early diagnosis is essential. Their physician should be sending them for regular mammogram screenings: every other year is typical for women over 55 with no previous breast cancer history. If they are not on such a regular schedule, have them call their doctor to make the proper arrangements.
Next, encourage regular self-checks between those mammograms. Help them sign up for and download the free Symptoms Guide from the National Breast Cancer Foundation at the link below (yes, they will ask you for a donation, but that's part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it's entirely your choice). The Guide comes with directions for a series of regular self-checks — in the shower, in front of a mirror, and lying down — and includes a useful checklist of potential symptoms.
Here's a tip for anyone starting a program of breast self-checks: the point is not to find symptoms on your first day, and quit if you don't. The point is to familiarize yourself with the normal feel and appearance of the breast tissue through daily checks, so that any abnormal results will be quickly apparent in the future.
Finally, should a self-test and/or medical screening produce a positive result, reassure your loved one that age and other health issues do not preclude swift and potentially life-saving treatments. Do some of your own research into treatments — we've included a link to one study on the NIH website below — and talk to your loved one's doctors. And hey, go ahead and be a little pushy on their behalf. That is one of the ways you can make sure that age and age-related resignation to medical issues is not a factor in their treatment.
And if you need assistance or support during this time, remember that the compassionate caregivers at Overture are always just a phone call away. Contact us 24/7 for a free consultation: (817) 887-9401
LINKS:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Breast Cancer Awareness
National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. Symptoms Guide download
“Breast Cancer in the Elderly — Should it be Treated Differently” Rep Pract Oncol Radiother, 2013 Jan; 18(1): 26–33