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Chemo less effective for breast cancer patients over 80

Published

9 years ago

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New York: For women over the age of 80 with breast cancer, the chances of survival due to chemotherapy are significantly lower, says a study.

“Chemotherapy’s reduced effect on the risk of mortality in older breast cancer patients could be due to several factors: tumours being less sensitive to chemotherapy, a decrease in dosage as the body gets weaker with age or chemotherapy killing healthy cells in addition to cancer cells,” said lead author Xianglin Du, professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, US.

For the study, the researchers examined data on 14,440 women diagnosed with breast cancer and 26,893 men and women diagnosed with colon cancer from 1992-2009.

All patients were over the age of 65.

Among the women who had breast cancer, chemotherapy treatment reduced the risk of death from all causes by 30 percent for women ages 65 to 69, 26 percent for women ages 70 to 74 and 24 percent for women ages 75 to 79.

For women over the age of 80, chemotherapy did not significantly reduce the risk of mortality.

However, when women over the age of 80 with breast cancer combined chemotherapy and an additional treatment with the drugs adriamycin and cyclophosphamide, they experienced a 29 percent reduced mortality risk, the study said.

While the benefit of chemotherapy in reducing the risk of mortality decreased with age for female breast cancer patients, men and women with colon cancer did not experience the same trend.

Chemotherapy remained effective for colon cancer patients until the age of 89.

The study was published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.

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Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

Published

3 years ago

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May 4, 2022

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Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

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