Too young for cancer: Forgotten generation
October 16, 2012
In the News: Self magazine recently examined the unique challenges that face young women when diagnosed with cancer. Even if it is caught in time, cancer when you’re 25 might be harder to cure than it would be in your mom. Some types, including breast cancer, colon cancer and sarcomas, may grow more aggressively when you’re young.
“We call them the forgotten generation,” says Leonard Sender, MD, head of adolescent and young adult oncology program at the University of California, Irvine. “The medical profession needs to stop writing off young people.”
The under-40s often have tumors with a unique biology, yet there are few specialists, wards or trials geared to help them. Patients may not even get a chance to freeze eggs before urgent fertility-threatening chemo and surgeries.
Too Young for Cancer ›
