Archive for the ‘Breast Cancer’ Category
Breast Cancer
An international study published in British Journal of Surgery has raised large differences in the way to treat breast cancer in different countries, despite the existence of international consensus on what the best practices.
Researchers in Europe, Japan and the United States spent five years to study in about ten thousand women with breast cancer in early stage of Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.
“The committed initial our research was to conduct a test international random to assess the effectiveness and safety of exemestane, a drug used against the breast cancer, alone or, after the administration of tamoxifen,” explained one of the authors, professor C. J. H. van de Velde, the University Medical Center of Leiden (ALL, The Netherlands). “However, having met to such a large number of patients, we realized that we had a unique opportunity to discuss possible differences between countries in the treatment of postmenopausal women with breast cancer at an early stage.’
“Our results show wide variations in the percentage of women who undergo surgery of the breast in place of removal of this (mastectomy) and radiation post-surgical,” explained the professor van de Velde.
Almost 58 percent of the women studied were breast lumps type T1 (less than 2 cm), from 37 per cent had tumors type T2 and 5 percent had tumors type T3 or T4, larger or more advanced. The highest percentage of cases of node negative, in which the cancer does not affect the lymph nodes, was found in the countries that also had the highest percentages of tumors T1 (Germany, France and the United States).
In the cases T1 was resorted more often to surgery of the chest, but there were large differences in the statistics relating to this treatment. Despite the fact that the percentages of T1 were similar in France and the United States, was applied surgery in the 89 per cent and 55 per cent of the cases, respectively.
The lymph nodes were affected by the disease in about 47 percent of women, and in total approximately 82 per cent of these patients underwent dissection of lymph node axillary. However, the figures ranging from 75 per cent of the patients in the United States by 99 per cent in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
It was also found big differences between the percentages of mastectomy and radiation therapy. In general, in cases of tumor T1 is prescribed with greater frequency mastectomy that surgery for breast, but the percentage of patients who were subjected to the first in France and the United States was 42 per cent and 69 percent respectively. The total percentage of mastectomies including all types of tumor was 44 per cent, recorded the lowest rates in France (19%) and the highest in Greece (56%).
Although the international guidelines stipulate that the conservative surgery should be accompanied by radiation therapy, the only countries that this was met at 100 per cent were Belgium and France. The highest percentages of treatment without radiation were in Ireland, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States. Received radiation about 39 percent of the women who had been subjected to mastectomy and 93 percent of those that had been subjected to surgery.
“Our study has raised that, despite the international guidelines agreed, there are changes very extensive worldwide in the treatment given to postmenopausal women suffering from breast cancer in early stage,” said professor van de Velde. “We Believe that efforts should be intensified to ensure that all women can benefit the most effective treatment available against the breast cancer, regardless of the country in the living.’