PLANTATION, Fla. – A recent study found women treated for breast cancer may age faster than cancer free women.
Dr. Carmen Calfa, a Breast Medical Oncologist with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center said NIH researchers wanted to find out if one particular type of therapy was more impactful on biological ageing than others.
Looking at specific treatment regimens including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal therapy, investigators found radiation had the biggest effect on biological aging.
“So that’s an interesting finding because when you think about radiation it’s not really a systemic treatment, it’s not going to every single part of your body, it’s given in a local, regional way, to the breast and the lymph nodes around, and it’s an interesting finding you would say how could a local, regional treatment affect something systemically such as the biological aging process, I think we’re going to learn more with more research that is going to happen,” she said.
Calfa said the findings should not lead women to abandon this treatment option.
Regardless of biological aging, she said radiation, along with other therapies, saves and extends life, which is the ultimate goal in treating breast cancer.
LINK BETWEEN SKIN CONDITION AND OTHER CHILDHOOD ALLERGIES
And a new study is shedding light on how allergies tend to develop and progress in children.
Looking at the medical records of more than 20,000 children over a 21-year period, researchers found that kids diagnosed with eczema as babies often later have allergic reactions to things like food and pollen.
Experts said the findings could give doctors and parents clues about the link between the skin condition and sensitivities to other factors.