Marianas Variety Guam Edition

CANCER is emerging as the top killer disease in the United States, bumping heart disease off the top of the list, according to Dr. Georgiana Ellis, associate professor for the Division of Oncology at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.
Ellis delivered her presentation titled “The Changing Face of Breast Cancer” during the fourth Micronesian Medical Symposium themed “Cancer in the Islands,” which concluded Saturday.

“Men are a little bit more susceptible than women. Overall for women, about 35 percent as many will die as will be diagnosed. If you look at breast cancer statistics, about 21 percent will die as compared to how many are diagnosed,” Ellis said. “This means this is a fairly treatable disease and the patients do better than the average cancer patient, and that makes it a really attractive area to work in.”

The University of Washington associate professor also said that in certain instances, cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the nation.

“You heard also that cancer is the second leading cause of death, but actually if you confine the analysis to men and women who are younger than 85 years, cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the U.S,” she said.

She said the incidents of heart disease have actually been declining, “but for those under 85, cancer is accounting for more deaths.”

Cancer experts

 The weekend symposium brought together the local and international medical experts on the various types of cancers. The three-day symposium held at the Guam Marriott Resort & Spa in Tumon covered areas such as advances in surgical oncology; and the current states of hepatic carcinoma, bladder cancers, prostate cancer screening and therapy, colon cancer, lung cancer, and upper gastrointestinal cancer.

Statistics showed that so far this year, there have been roughly 1.5 million cases of potentially fatal malignancy in the United States. From that total, approximately 766,130 of them have been male patients while women with similar cases currently stand at around 713,220. Approximately 92,370 of all female patients with recorded cases this year were diagnosed with breast cancer.

As for breast cancer demographics, about two-thirds occur in post menopausal women.

Additionally, about two-thirds of post-menopausal women have positive hormone receptors. Roughly two-thirds of pre-menopausal women have negative hormone receptors, “Which is partly why it is more aggressive in that population,” Ellis said.

Peak age

Ellis added that the peak age for breast cancer is around 60 years of age. “It climbs pretty rapidly through about age 60. The incidents continue to climb after 60, but at a slower rate,” she said.

With regard to treatment preferences for her own patients, Ellis said she does a “systemic therapy of the patient, either adjuvant or neo-adjuvant.” She added that roughly half of the patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. “do not have a future problem after they have completed their initial therapy.”

“It’s a disease that is predominately picked up early, treated aggressively, and the average person does well,” she added, concluding by stating that “We’re striving to make it a better outcome for the rest of the women who sustain this disease.”

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