Surgeon, radiotherapist, nuclear medicine professor, nurses, psychologist… Thursday, October 13, as part ofPink Octoberbreast cancer specialists, working mainly at the Polyclinic of the Loire Valley, met at the Ducal Palace to dissect breast cancer, explain it to the general public in all its aspects and play it down.
Organized by the Cancer Coordination Centre, the Nevers radiotherapy center and the polyclinic, the conference first addressed organized screening for women aged 50 to 74. Still too little followed in Nièvre (49.4%), according to Dr César Beltran Garcia, radiotherapist at the Nevers radiotherapy center.
Tomosynthesis improves cancer detection
Dr Nicolas Chaillet, radiologist at the polyclinic, presented the various techniques for breast cancer screening using medical imaging. With their advantages and disadvantages. Tomosynthesis, for example, which reconstructs the breast in 3D, improves the detection of cancers, with better localization of anomalies. But increase the dose: this is why it is not authorized in organized screening. Increasingly, angiomammography is developing. It brings precision.
“But why do you have to compress the breast for mammography? “Asks Dr. César Beltran Garcia, to enlighten the women brought to be screened. “It allows the breast to be fixed, so that it does not move. It decreases the thickness too, so it will require less spokes. And the image will be homogeneous”, replies Dr Nicolas Chaillet.
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PET scan: precise, but still expensive
Professor Alexandre Cochet, head of the nuclear medicine department at the Georges-François Leclerc center in Dijon, was specially invited to discuss the role of PET scans in the management of breast cancer. A tool used for the search for metastases, recurrence or for a check-up of chemo. Thanks to a tracer (a biological molecule associated with a radioactive atom), we can see cancer cells. A new tracer also makes it possible to see the sensitivity of cancer cells to hormone therapy. The limit of the Tep is its cost, according to the professor: between 500 and 1,000 €.
Treatment: the future is in vectorized internal radiotherapy
In the future, radiotherapy treatments could be carried out by vectorized internal radiotherapy (Riv): the combination of a radioactive drug via the venous route (as for the PET scan) with a molecule that destroys the cancer. A way to better target cancer cells.
After the radiology, Dr. Bérangère Laurent-Guéry, performing breast cancer operations at the Nevers clinic, discussed the various possible interventions, depending on the cancer cases: from PAMectomy (removal of the nipple) to total mastectomy. (removal of the breast), passing through the different levels of lymph node removal.
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In the clinic’s oncology department, a multidisciplinary team
Preventing cancer is partly through diet. A dietician from the polyclinic spoke about the benefits of certain foods (fruits, vegetables, nut oil, foods containing antioxidants, etc.) and the risks of consuming certain foods too much (sugars, salt, fatty acids, alcohol).
Finally, nurses, secretary, psychologist and other staff from the oncology department of the polyclinic intervened to explain how the team takes care of it and the advantages it brings. The psychologist provides support “especially preoperatively. There is a fear of uncertainty about the aftermath,” he says. “We are working on acceptance. A nurse, Nadège, also offers massages. “We are really a multidisciplinary team: we have references in wounds and healing, palliative care, etc. It’s really reassuring for the patients to see that there are specialized people,” underlines a nurse from the team.
Jenny Pierre