- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- moms today articles
- moms today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Breast Cancer
Get the Facts
By Lisa Hurt Kozarovich
Dr. Ruth Oratz, an oncologist at New York University Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at NYU's School of Medicine, agrees. "We've seen women in their 20s and women in their 90s with breast cancer," she says. "Women of any age can get breast cancer." Still, women in their 50s and 60s face the biggest risk, with 64 as the average age of diagnosis.
Debbie Franklin, 37, knows firsthand that no one is too young to get cancer. "I was 36 and breastfeeding my first baby when I was first misdiagnosed with mastitis, then found to have inflammatory breast cancer that was already in my bones," she says. "Quite a few doctors, including a breast surgeon, had examined me before the proper diagnosis was made. And later I was told that doctors don't expect to find a young nursing mother with breast cancer. They don't want to see it."
Franklin is currently undergoing treatment in Southern California. "But as the most recent newsletter of the Young Survival Coalition [breast cancer advocacy group], says: 'You're too young to have cancer' is not a diagnosis," she says.
Following recent studies and statements by patient advocacy groups, one of the biggest controversies has been about mammograms, including at what age to have them, how often to have them and whether they're as beneficial as initially thought.
"There is not a simple answer about mammograms. Currently, I don't believe the screening regulations that we've followed for the past five to 10 years should be changed," says Dr. Winer, a member of the National Comprehensive Cancr Network panel that develops breast cancer guidelines for physicians and patients. "That means women older than 50 should have an annual mammogram, and women ages 40 to 50 should talk to their doctors about their risks and whether they should start screening."
