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Breast cancer treatment is tailored to the patient’s condition.
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GridHEALTH.id – Breast cancer is the number one cancer that is most often experienced by women.
According to the World Health Organization or WHO, there are about 685,000 women who died of breast cancer globally in 2020.
There is no definite cause of breast cancer, but a woman is more at risk of developing this condition than men.
Also Read: The characteristics of the development of breast cancer, from stage 1 to 4
In addition to gender, there are other factors that also increase the risk of breast cancer, including hormones, genetics, diet, age, and lifestyle.
Knowing the symptoms of breast cancer as early as possible, can avoid these fatal risks.
A palpable lump in the breast, skin with a texture similar to an orange peel, inverted nipples, and a reddish-yellow discharge are common symptoms of breast cancer.
Also Read: Get to know Mammography, Examination for Detection of Breast Cancer
“Breast cancer is a cell in the breast gland that grows uncontrollably and can damage the surrounding organs,” said Dr. Arief Wibisono, Sp.B(K) Onk, Surgical Oncology Specialist at Brawijaya Hospital.
In special coverage GridHEALTH, Saturday (12/11/2021), Doctor Arief explained about several types of treatment commonly used to treat breast cancer.
But before that, he explained that not all women diagnosed with breast cancer undergo the same treatment.
“Treatment of breast cancer for each individual is different, according to the type of cell, the nature of the tumor, hormones, and stage. It cannot be beaten evenly (the treatment) to all patients,” he said.
Doctor Arief said the types of breast cancer treatment consisted of surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy.
Also Read: 4 Body Parts Affected If Breast Cancer Spreads and Symptoms
1. Operation
The type of surgery performed also varies, for example, only removing breast lumps (lumpectomy), lift the nipples and chest muscles (radical mascetomy), removes breast tissue but leaves the nipple and skin (nipple-sparing mascetomy), and breast, nipple, and tissue surgery called modified mascetomy.
“The operation depends on the size and location of the tumor. If it’s very big, it’s a big wound, maybe you shouldn’t have surgery first. First given cancer drugs, judged by their nature.
2. Chemotherapy
Treatment is done by giving special drugs to kill cancer cells.
Can be done before or after surgery.
Doctor Arief said chemotherapy drugs were given in 6 cycles which lasted 3 weeks.
“Every cycle we assess (the size of the tumor). What was previously inoperable, when chemotherapy was reduced, we operated on it,” he said.
The operation performed is still adjusted to the size of the tumor, some have to remove the breast or just take a lump, if the tumor is very small.
Also Read: Can Men Get Breast Cancer? This is Doctor’s Explanation
3. Radiation
“Radiation is given to patients who are at an early stage, only surgery to remove the lump is called breast-conserving surgery (BCS), plus cleaning the lymph nodes in the armpit,” explained doctor Arief.
He said radiation must be done after surgery to remove a breast lump.
This is done to remove any cancer cells that may still remain.
This is done to overcome breast cancer influenced by the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone.
In women who are still in premenopause, will be given onbat ati-hormones such as tamoxifen.
Meanwhile, for postmenopausal women, aromatase inhibitors are given, which can convert cholesterol into estrogen.
