Age of mother and grandmother in relation to a subject's breast cancer risk

Determination of information and support needs of first degree relatives of women with breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer among women in the world and the most common cause of deaths from cancer in females. In Turkey, breast cancer comes first in the list of the most frequent ten cancer types seen in women. As the incidence rate of breast cancer is high, many women having breast cancer in the family experience the breast cancer at secondhand. This study was carried out in an attempt to determine the information and support needs of women whose first-degree relatives have breast cancer and to what extent these needs are met.

METHODS

The research sample consisted of 156 women. Questionnaire Form and Information and Support Needs Questionnaires were used as the data collection tools.

RESULTS

Information need score averages (x?:3.72±0.19) of women included in the research sampling were found to be higher than their score averages of support needs (x?:3.24±0.41).

CONCLUSION

Information needs which were indicated by women as very important were related to treatment, symptoms of breast cancer and breast self examination (BSE), while support needs which were indicated by women as very important were learning how to perform BSE, women's anxiety for themselves and their relatives regarding breast cancer and having their breasts examined by a health professional. It is recommended that nurses and other medical staff should give information to women whose first-degree relatives have breast cancer about the disease, its etiology, scanning, diagnosis, treatment options and protection as well as prevention.

Influence of family size and birth order on risk of cancer: a population-based study

BACKGROUND

Family size and birth order are known to influence the risk of some cancers. However, it is still unknown whether these effects change from early to later adulthood. We used the data of the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to further analyze these effects.

METHODS

We selected over 5.7 million offspring with identified parents but no parental cancer. We estimated the effect of birth order and family size by Poisson regression adjusted for age, sex, period, region and socioeconomic status. We divided the age at diagnosis in two groups, below and over 50 years, to identify the effect of family size and birth order for different age periods.

RESULTS

Negative associations for increasing birth order were found for endometrial, testicular, skin, thyroid and connective tissue cancers and melanoma. In contrast, we observed positive association between birth order and lung, male and female genital cancers. Family size was associated with decreasing risk for endometrial and testicular cancers, melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma; risk was increased for leukemia and nervous system cancer. The effect of birth order decreased for lung and endometrial cancer from age at diagnosis below to over 50 years. Combined effects for birth order and family size were marginally significant for thyroid gland tumors. Especially, the relative risk for follicular thyroid gland tumors was significantly decreased for increasing birth order.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that the effect of birth order decreases from early to late adulthood for lung and endometrial cancer.