What do adolescent females know about breast cancer and prevention?

Background: Many lifelong habits begin during adolescence. These habits can have profound, long-term ramifications on health. An important health habit is self-breast examination (SBE). The purpose of this study is to assess adolescent females\u27 knowledge of breast cancer and breast cancer prevention. A survey was developed with questions that focused on female adolescents\u27 knowledge of these topics. This information will assist health professionals in educating teens and forming public policy.Methods: Anonymous surveys consisting of ten questions were distributed to 280 females aged 13-17. These questions pertained to breast cancer with an emphasis on SBE, mammography, and risk factors. Questions were analyzed by chi square calculations. An additional section of the survey contained demographic characteristics of the respondents. Parental consent was obtained prior to completion of the surveys in accordance with the Institutional Review Board at St. Luke\u27s Hospital. Surveys were administered during health class in a local high school.Results: One hundred and fifteen surveys were returned. Ages of participants were 13 to 17. The ethnic background of all participants were similar in that the majority were Caucasian. The overall percentage of correct answers was 65%. The majority of students knew what a mammogram is (92%) and how often screening should occur (65%), however, only 25% knew at what age screening should begin. It was encouraging that 80% of the students knew how often to perform SBE although only about half (53%) knew the time of the month this should be done. It was also encouraging that 83% knew that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death, but the knowledge regarding risk factors that could possibly affect them was poor (36%). A statistically significant findings was that in the twenty percent of the students who had been taught SBE, 10 (43.5%) actually perform them. This is in relation to 2.2% of students who perform exams without any prior instruction. There was no statistically significant difference in the final score between students who had been taught how to perform exams and students who had not.Conclusions: Developing sound health habits as an adolescent should transcend to good health maintenance practices as an adult. Our study showed that adolescent females significantly lack knowledge relating to breast cancer. Adolescent females need to be better educated on the basic facts, including risk factors, screening procedures and SBE. With the incidence of breast cancer so high, knowledge of breast cancer and its prevention may result in earlier diagnosis and subsequently better long term outcomes

The role of sentinel lymph node mapping in staging of colon and rectal cancer.

PURPOSE: Nodal metastasis is the best predictor of survival for patients with colon cancer. Statistical models based on random distribution of positive lymph nodes suggest that to correctly classify nodal status with 95 percent confidence, 20 nodes are needed for T1 lesions, 17 nodes for T2, and 15 nodes for T3. The mean number of nodes identified in American patients is 8, suggesting that they might not be accurately staged. Patients in our tumor registry staged as node-negative had a short survival when they had \u3c or =10 lymph nodes evaluated when compared with patients with \u3e10 lymph nodes evaluated (p \u3c 0.01). We hypothesized that the use of sentinel lymph node may assist in the staging of colon cancer. METHODS: Thirty-eight consecutive patients with colon lesions were prospectively enrolled into this trial between February 1998 and November 1999. Thirty-one patients met criteria for analysis. During surgery, Lymphazurin blue dye was injected subserosally into the area around the tumor. Routine nodal evaluation, with extra cuts of all sentinel nodes, was undertaken. RESULTS: At least one sentinel lymph node was found in 18 of 31 patients (58 percent). Sensitivity of 67 percent, specificity and positive predictive value of 100 percent, and negative predictive value of 94 percent were found when sentinel lymph nodes were identified. In 2 of these 18 patients, the sentinel lymph node was the only positive lymph node found. CONCLUSIONS: Application of the sentinel lymph node technique to colon cancer may make it easier to identify lymph nodes most likely to contain metastatic disease, potentially down-staging more patients. This may have implications in postoperative care