10 yr old girl with Breast Cancer

[MA-Caver]

10-Year-Old Girl Battles Rare Breast Cancer


Breast Cancer Case Exceedingly Uncommon; Doctors Warn Media Spotlight Could Lead to Panic


By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit
May 19, 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCallPlusBreastCancerNews/story?id=7619276&page=1
For many of the estimated 180,000 women whose doctors will tell them they have breast cancer this year, the diagnosis will no doubt come as a shock.
A fifth-grade student recently underwent a mastectomy after a cancer diagnosis.
But for the parents of 10-year-old Hannah Powell-Auslam of Fullerton, Calif., who learned in early April that their daughter had breast cancer, the news was particularly hard to swallow.
"It should be the furthest thing from your mind," Hannah's mother Carrie Auslam told reporters from KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. "Ten-year-olds don't get breast cancer."
For Hannah, the realization that she would have to deal with a disease normally associated with women many times her age was a difficult one to take.
"I told my mom, I just wanna be a normal kid," she told reporters. "I want to go back to school, play sports, hang out with my friends. So I started crying."

This is very sad. This is something one acknowledges for mature women to be on the look out for, regular self examinations and so forth. But this young girl having to go through all of that... makes it more poignant.

Doctors worried that the media attention might cause a panic, probably are right but in acknowledging that it's a rare case should help alleviate concerns but at least will heighten awareness even further.

"This type of cancer is also extremely rare, but in children is more common than ductal carcinoma," he said. "The rarity of this disease makes information about it scarce; nonetheless it is thought to be a slow growing tumor with an excellent prognosis." Regardless of what type of tumor it was, any kind of cancer is a heavy diagnosis to handle for a child Hannah's age, noted Lillie Shockney, administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center in Baltimore, Md.
"This is the youngest case I've ever heard of," Shockney said. "I find for youngsters at this age its best to not be focusing on the kind of cancer it is, but that it is cancer and that surgery and other treatment are needed.
"It's hard enough for adults to get their heads around breast cancer, much less a child."
While Hannah's story is ultimately a hopeful one, Shockney said that it is also highly unusual, and she added that she does not feel that it would be appropriate for parents to believe breast cancer is a major risk for their young daughters.

"I don't want the outcome to be that mothers are panicked across the country wanting to have their daughters in elementary and middle and high school to get mammograms or even clinical breast exams," Shockney said. "This is a highly unusual situation."
Shockney was not the only one to express reservations about how the situation should be broached to the public. While the Auslam family has been very open about Hannah's fight, the media coverage of her experience has sparked debate among breast cancer experts as to whether or not such a rare case of cancer should be given widespread coverage.

As I read it the doctors are being appropriately sympathetic to the young girl's plight, yet IMO correct in their concerns over the growing media coverage of it. Cancer is scary enough, but understanding it is one of the key things to overcome it... overcoming the fear.

Prayers to this brave young lady and for her parents being so supportive as they rightly should be.

 

[Tez3]

Breast cancer isn't confined to women, men get it too and should also be on the lookout for lumps, discharge from nipples etc. There also is no age that it can start. It may be slightly rarer in younger women but it's not something you should be complacent about at any age.The thing about mature women is that it's easier to diagnose through the use of mammograms as the breast tissue gets less dense as you age. All women should be checking breasts every month.

 

[arnisador]

I work with a male survivor of breast cancer.