Modern strategies for the treatment of breast cancer
Ten Breakthroughs in Breast Cancer Treatment
Larisa Aksenova, "Newspaper.Ru»Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Breast cancer) is held annually in October in many countries of the world under the auspices of WHO.
Significant changes have taken place in this area of medicine over the past ten years. "Oncology, like all medical science, is going through a revolutionary period," Professor M.D. Aliyev opened the conference with these words. The idea of the revolutionary nature of new methods of treatment and diagnosis was present in every report. "Newspaper.Ru" summarized information about ten major breakthroughs in the treatment of breast cancer, announced at the conference.
1. There is a tendency in surgery to reduce the volume of surgical intervention in breast cancer. New techniques for performing operations are aimed at preserving the organ as much as possible. This is the cutting edge of oncosurgery, because in other types of cancer, surgical intervention is more aggressive.
2. Rehabilitation operations. New biocompatible polymer materials for reconstructive plastic surgery have been developed. And today doctors can perform operations that allow not only to cure the patient, but also to create conditions for the quality of life.
3. The appearance of a biopsy technique of the signal – sentinel – lymph node. It is thanks to this technique that it is possible to preserve healthy tissues: if no metastases are detected in the signal lymph node, then lymph dissection (removal of lymph nodes of certain levels) is not required. Before using this technique, axillary lymph nodes were often and not always justifiably removed during surgery, which led to severe pain in the arm and limited its mobility in the future. Unfortunately, the method has not yet been widely used in Russia, since we have officially registered only one drug for this study and, paradoxically, the device for this drug is not certified. Nevertheless, on the basis of the I.M. Sechenov MMA, our doctors, under the guidance of PhD A.V. Petrovsky, are conducting clinical trials that confirm the effectiveness and relevance of such diagnostics, and hope that within two to three years it will become available in Russian clinics.
4. Among other modern achievements in breast cancer therapy, new possibilities of radiation therapy were mentioned. New techniques have appeared – three-dimensional, with dose modulation. Effective methods have been developed that allow the use of radiation therapy during surgical interventions. According to experts, modern operations using such combined methods can achieve good long-term and cosmetic results.
5. Chemotherapy becomes targeted, more effective, less evil for the patient. The degree of side effects is reduced. Cytostatic drugs (selectively killing cancer cells) were discussed separately: all the successes of surgery and radiation treatments are due to the success in the use of cytostatics. Experts have identified the evolutionary stages in the formation of the method: The 70s of the last century - the pre–anthracycline period; the 1980s - the anthracycline period; the 1990s – the high-dose period and the 2000s – polychemotherapy.
6. Despite the fact that endocrine therapy is an achievement of the last decade, today it is difficult to imagine that without treatment with antiestrogens and aromatase inhibitors, good long–term results can be achieved in the treatment of certain types of breast cancer. With the proper use of hormones, preoperative regression (reverse development) of the tumor is observed in 3-5% of cases, as explained by Professor S.A. Tyulyandin, who reviewed the effectiveness of preoperative drug treatments.
7. It is believed that the XXI century was marked by the beginning of the era of targeted therapy in medicine. Targeted gene therapy drugs have shown their effectiveness in the treatment of cancer in general and breast cancer in particular. According to doctors, this, on the one hand, made a real revolution in changing approaches to treatment, on the other hand, indicated the absolute need for methods of molecular genetic diagnostics.
8. Knowledge of the molecular subtypes of the tumor does not effectively enable a differentiated approach. "Modern views on the morphological features of cancer cells in breast cancer have been revised. This is a revolutionary breakthrough, – said Ph.D. Y.V. Vishnevskaya. "In 2012, a new WHO classification was published, taking into account oncogenetic markers, which is now followed in Russia as well."
9. Recent advances in regenerative biomedicine indicate that, with a high probability, biological prostheses can be created using tissue engineering methods in the next ten years, which will significantly improve the quality of life of operated patients.
10. Many scientific laboratories around the world are actively studying how cancer can be defeated at the molecular level. Target proteins of cancer cells have been identified, against which new effective drugs may be obtained in the next decade.
Looking into the future of breast cancer therapy, surgeon, Professor V.P. Letyagin suggested that perhaps the time will come when medicine will make a new leap from radical mastectomy to non-surgical methods based entirely on drug therapy.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.10.2013