Neoadjuvant therapy best for breast cancer: Study

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.