breast cancer. A diagnosis that shakes a woman’s life to its foundations. It is all the more important that this disease is well, yes: better understood. That takes away fear. Knowledge is the best medicine, and this is all the more true when it comes to the diagnosis of breast cancer, the most common type of cancer in women. Fortunately, the days when breast cancer was something of a death sentence are over.
Today, this cancer is easily treatable, and the mortality rate is steadily falling. Thanks to new treatment methods and good early detection options, the relative 10-year survival rate for breast cancer patients 83 percent.
Reported in the podcast Prof. dr. med. Mark Thill, Head of the Gynecological Cancer Center at the Agaplesion Markus Hospital, that chemotherapy does not help all those affected by breast cancer. The most important findings from the expert interview are:
- Breast cancer treatment continues to improve. Early detection and treatment measures are much better today than they were a few years ago. As a result, the diagnosis of breast cancer is no longer a death sentence.
- Breast cancer is not just breast cancer. Every cancer is different, often very individual treatment methods have to be applied and personal treatment decisions in order to achieve optimal therapy results.
- Chemotherapy is always a burden. For some patients it can be life-saving, but for many it brings no additional benefit. Therefore, we should use individualized diagnostics to identify the women who could really benefit from chemotherapy. Tests like this help with this Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score® Testwhich predicts the expected benefits of chemotherapy and provides information about the risk of the cancer coming back.