"乳癌試驗結果令年輕女性失望"

一項新研究顯示，年輕的病患比年紀較大的病患更容易復發。

由英國癌症研究中心以及威薩克斯癌症信託贊助的一份新研究發現，這份癌症試驗和測試方法令年輕女性失望。看過大約三千名在40歲前被診斷出罹患乳癌的女性醫療紀錄後，研究人員發現，被診斷五年後，罹患一種癌症的年輕女性復發機率不減反增。

女性所罹患的疾病為雌激素受體呈陽性反應形式的話，通常是以化療方式治療，之後再服用阻擋雌激素受體的藥物。這種治療方式對年紀較大的病患是成功的，但顯然對年輕病患卻不然。研究主持人戴安娜愛可思教授說，年輕女性「可能需要另一種治療方式，這在年紀較大病患的癌症試驗上，並不一定能夠發現。」

英國癌症研究中心的凱蒂洛評論該研究說：「雖然一般來說，乳癌的存活率在最近幾十年來有驚人進展，現在女性與1970年代被診斷出乳癌的女性相比，多出兩倍的機率能至少多活十年，但年輕的乳癌病患就不一定了。」

(Health) Breast Cancer Trials Fail Younger Women

A new study shows that younger patients relapse more easily than older patients.

A new cancer study funded by Cancer Research UK and the Wessex Cancer Trust has found that younger women are being let down by cancer trials and testing methods. After looking at the medical records of around 3,000 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer before they reached the age of 40, researchers discovered that the relapse rate of young women with one kind of cancer increased rather than decreased five years after diagnosis.

Women with an estrogen-receptor-positive form of the disease are normally treated with chemotherapy followed by medicine that blocks estrogen receptors. The treatment is successful with older patients, but apparently not with younger ones, and lead researcher Professor Dianna Eccles said younger women may require a different approach to treatment, which isn't necessarily understood from cancer trials in older patients.

Commenting on the study, Kate Law from Cancer Research UK said: Although in general breast cancer survival has improved dramatically in recent decades, with women now twice as likely to survive their disease for at least 10 years compared to those diagnosed in the 1970s, the same can't be said for younger breast cancer patients.

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