Stating that the incidence of breast cancer in women is increasing day by day, but the treatment methods have also improved a lot, General Surgeon Prof. Dr. Can Küçük said, “One in every 8 women has breast cancer.”
Pointing out that breast cancers are the most common cancer group in women, Acıbadem Kayseri Hospital General Surgeon Prof. Dr. Can Küçük said, “This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On the occasion of this month, I recommend all women not to skip the check-up again. Do not be afraid of breast cancer, be afraid of being late. Approximately 70-80 years ago, breast cancer was seen in one out of every 20 women in Western societies, but today, unfortunately, breast cancer is seen in one out of 8 women.”
“Smoking is very effective in the increase in the incidence of breast cancer”
Prof. Dr. Küçük stated that although there are more or less increases in all types of cancer today, the increase in breast cancer is higher and said, “There are many reasons for this. One of them is hormone use. There was not much hormone use in women 50-60 years ago. But today, hormone use has increased. The second important reason is smoking. Smoking has a close relationship with breast cancer and many cancers. Therefore, we advise women not to smoke.”
Prof. Dr. Küçük also mentioned that additives in food are also an important factor in the development of cancer and said that it is not easy to reach a food without additives today, but we should pay attention to natural nutrition as much as we can. He also recommended activities such as sports and walking for a healthy life.
“Surgery techniques have improved a lot”
Stating that with the increase in the incidence of breast cancer, treatment options in breast cancer have also increased, Küçük said, “30-40 years ago, breast cancer surgeries were more aggressive surgeries. In these surgeries, the patient's breast and the chest muscle of the breast were removed. In addition, the axillary lymph nodes were completely removed. The skin of the breast was also removed and the skin there was replaced with skin taken from the leg. Over time, such surgeries were eliminated. Later, surgeries in which only the breast was removed and the axillary lymph nodes were removed emerged. After the removal of most of the axillary lymph nodes, it was observed that patients developed a large number of arm edema, which was not very treatable. Various studies were carried out to solve this situation, which seriously affected patient comfort. Now, these surgeries can be performed without completely removing the axillary lymph nodes. In most of our patients, we can perform this surgery without completely removing the breast.”
Prof. Dr. Can Küçük stated that in 2 or 3 out of 10 patients who have recently undergone breast cancer surgery, they completely removed the breast, and in the other 7-8 patients, they continued the treatment by removing only part of the breast; “In order to perform these surgeries, we work multidisciplinary in our hospital, that is, we make treatment plans by meeting with our patients in our oncology councils, including radiology, medical oncology, radiation oncology and general surgery. In this way, according to the decision of the council, we make individual treatment plans for patients. We offer personalized treatment options that may be suitable for each patient.”
“First medication and then surgery can be preferred”
Explaining that with the developments in medical technology in recent years, a lot of progress has been made in lymph nodes, Prof. Dr. Küçük said; “Again, if we operate on 10 patients, maybe 2-3 patients' armpits are cleaned, but 7 patients are not cleaned. I think this is a great development in recent times. We do this as follows; we inject a special substance into the breast during surgery. This special substance helps us to detect the guard lymph nodes, that is, the lymph nodes that the tumor first reaches, using the lymph pathway. These lymph nodes are removed during surgery and evaluated by an expert pathologist at the same time and we can learn whether there is a tumor in the lymph node during surgery. If there is a tumor in the lymph nodes, we remove some of the lymph nodes in the armpits, but if there are no tumor findings in the lymph nodes, we do not intervene in the armpit. In this way, we have seen almost no arm edema recently.”
Stating that another major development is related to the timing of the surgery, Can Küçük said, “Previously, the patient was operated immediately, but recently, in advanced tumors and tumors that spread to the armpit, we first give chemotherapy. In this way, we shrink the large tumors a little and operate. In this way, we increase the chance of breast conserving surgery and reduce the possibility of recurrence of the tumor.”
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