Breast cancer treatment: from radical mastectomy to radiosurgery
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. In fact, it is estimated that 12% of women will develop this tumor during their lifetime. However, breast cancer treatment has undergone extraordinary progress in recent years. This is due to a better understanding of its pathophysiology, improved treatments, and, of course, better diagnostic techniques, leading to increasingly earlier diagnosis of this disease.
All of this has resulted in a significant decrease in mortality and morbidity among patients suffering from this disease in recent years .
Table of Contents – Treatment dbreast cancer
Breast cancer treatment today
Breast cancer treatment: evolution
The definitive solution: Radiosurgery
Breast cancer treatment today
Today, we can offer our patients increasingly less invasive treatments with improved cure rates. Furthermore, these treatments are much better tolerated, avoiding the significant psychological and physical disruptions that radical surgical techniques cause.
Breast cancer treatment: evolution
The evolution of surgical treatment in the last century has been very important and has greatly improved the quality of life of patients who have undergone these procedures.
In the first half of the 20th century, the usual surgical technique was the Halsted radical mastectomy (complete removal of the breast, pectoralis major and minor muscles and axillary lymph nodes).
Subsequently, the modified Patay radical mastectomy was performed , in which the pectoralis major muscle is preserved and the axillary lymph nodes are removed.
This conservative trend continued, moving towards respecting both pectoral muscles ( Madden technique ), which significantly reduced the side effects of these treatments without compromising the therapeutic outcome.
In the last decade of the 20th century, conservative treatments began to be carried out:
- Lumpectomies: removal of the tumor with a margin of healthy tissue around it and partial mastectomies).
- Breast reconstructions after surgeries that will involve the complete removal of the breast in cases where the type of tumor did not allow conservative surgery.
Finally, the incorporation of nuclear medicine into the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer has made it possible to avoid routine axillary lymph node dissection in many cases. This further improves the quality of life for these patients . It also avoids many side effects caused by the disruption of lymphatic drainage that this procedure produces.
The definitive solution: Radiosurgery
In recent years, radiotherapy techniques have undergone significant advancements. Radiosurgery , already used for other tumors (brain, pancreatic, etc.), appears to be the logical next step, potentially avoiding many complications and consequently reducing the side effects of traditional surgical treatments without compromising cure rates for these patients.
However, these techniques require a large infrastructure with high economic costs and highly qualified personnel . These are aspects that need improvement for the widespread adoption of this technique.
If you found this article interesting and would like to be seen by a professional expert in Gynecology and Obstetrics, the Women's Unit at Ruber International Hospital has a specialized unit in this area. You can request more information by calling the following numbers: 91 387 51 72/73/74 or make an appointment for an in-person consultation, always with the best specialists.
