Expert: Breast cancer survival not enough

Published: May 14, 2008 at 12:59 PM

LONDON, May 14 (UPI) -- Eighty percent of women with breast cancer survive after five years, but survivors face a host of other problems, the head of a London charity said.

Pamela Goldberg, chief executive of the Breast Cancer Campaign, said life is completely different for breast cancer survivors today than in the 1970s.

"Thirty years ago only half of women with breast cancer survived for more than five years. Today that figure is around 80 percent," Goldberg told the Breast Cancer Campaign Scientific Conference in London.

"However, some of these treatments like radiotherapy and chemotherapy have toxic and debilitating side effects which have a profound impact on their quality of life, every single day. This may partly explain why breast cancer still remains the biggest health fear for women."

Fatigue, body image and early menopause leading to childlessness are just some of the problems faced by breast cancer survivors that can have a real impact on their psychological well-being -- in some cases fatigue is so severe that giving up work can seem the only option -- Goldberg said.

"While our mission is to beat breast cancer, we also aim to better understand the impact that breast cancer has on people's lives and how best to support them," Goldberg said.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Woman to fight fine for feeding ducks (6 min)
Wickmayer discusses doping suspension (17 min)
CDC estimates 22M had H1N1, 3,900 died
New Orleans Hornets fire Coach Byron Scott
Chicago students arrested after food fight
Intel to pay AMD $1.25B settlement
UPI NewsTrack Business
fark
If there are aliens on other worlds, did Jesus die for their sins, too? After all, every Gelgamek...
Murder suspect tells jury he has the cure for global warming, knows how to win in Afghanistan, and...
...and when they covered the Jews' cars in sticky-notes I said nothing, because I was not a Jew
Photoshop this barrier balancer
You can make your very own Tamiflu at home. I'm sure this will end well
Ohio couple married 61 years and died one day apart. There is no escape. Did you hear me? NO ESCAPE...