Neoadjuvant therapy best for breast cancer: Study

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta

Neoadjuvant therapy after surgical procedure for breast cancer patients has been proven to help them recover and increase their life expectancy, a study reveals.

Newly installed professor Muchlis Ramli said on Saturday that neoadjuvant therapy was a combined treatment consisting of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy.

The study conducted recently by the surgical oncologist discovered that in locally advanced breast cancer, neoadjuvant therapy increased patients' life expectancy by five years in 63 percent of patients as compared to surgery (36 percent) and radiotherapy (29 percent).

Locally advanced breast cancer is a medical term for breast cancer which affects an area larger than 5 centimeters, and which may have spread from the breast into the lymph nodes or other tissues next to the breast.

In inflammatory breast cancer, neoadjuvant therapy was proven to increase patients' life expectancy by five years in 47 percent of cases studied as against surgery (2 percent) and radiotherapy (3 percent), Muchlis said.

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare form of rapidly advancing breast cancer that usually accounts for less than 1 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses. It manifests in an invasive breast cancer that progresses quickly, causing the breast to look swollen and inflamed.

Muchlis said most women mistakenly believed that breast cancer was untreatable. He said the disease was curable, provided that it was diagnosed in the earlier stages.

If the cancer is detected in stadium I, a therapy called Breast Conserving Treatment can be applied provided that the tumor is no larger than 3 centimeters, he said.

"A patient can have her cancer removed without costing her her breast," he told the audience at the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine.

Breast Conserving Treatment involves limited surgery such as tumorectomy (removing the tumor), or quadrantectomy (removing one quadrant).

Unfortunately, Muchlis said, a half of breast cancer cases were diagnosed in the later stages, due to a lack of awareness among women about the disease.

Women who are aged above 35 are most vulnerable to developing breast cancer, he said.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that between 8 percent and 9 percent of women in the world have breast cancer. With seven million new cases found every year, breast cancer is obviously worrisome for women, WHO says.

Breast cancer kills 700,000 women every year.

In Indonesia, although there is no official data, breast cancer trails cervical cancer as the major cause of death among females.

According to the Dharmais Cancer Hospital in Jakarta, the incidence of breast cancer is 100 per 100,000 women per year in the country.

"The key is for women to educate themselves more on breast cancer, how to detect and prevent it. They need to examine their breasts often and have it checked once they feel something strange around it," said Muchlis.