Breast cancer treatments at Vinmec

The article is written by Master. Doctor. Quach Thanh Dung, Internal Oncology Department - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital

Breast cancer is a very common disease, in Vietnam, breast cancer ranks first in incidence and third in mortality in women. Breast cancer treatment is a multimodal treatment combining many methods, each stage has different treatment methods to bring the highest treatment effect to the patient.

1. Surgery

Surgery is the first method of breast cancer treatment and is also the main method of breast cancer treatment, especially in cases where there is no metastasis. Includes:
Transformative radical mastectomy. This is the basic surgical method, including removal of the entire mammary gland and axillary lymph node dissection into a mass, preserving pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, and nerves. Plastic surgery after breast cancer surgery: after removal of the entire mammary gland, the patient is performed breast reconstruction with breast implants or breast reconstruction with autologous skin flap. used in patients who fully meet the requirements for conservative indications. Surgery includes wide excision of the breast with tumor and axillary lymph node dissection. After conservative surgery, the patient had to receive adjuvant radiation therapy. Today, conservative surgery is widely applied to improve the quality of life for patients. Palliative surgery; With ulcerated breast tumors, surgery to clean the tumor is a palliative method to improve the quality of life for patients.

2. Chemotherapy treatment

Breast cancer is a systemic disease, so chemotherapy is an indispensable treatment, including: adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery, neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (before surgery), chemotherapy. symptoms in advanced breast cancers.
There are many chemotherapy regimens used, but they can be roughly divided into 3 groups: regimens without anthracycline, regimens with anthracycline and regimens with taxanes.

3. Targeted therapy with monoclonal antibody drugs

Currently, thanks to the development of biotechnology, a number of monoclonal antibodies have been put into treatment applications in developed countries and Vietnam such as Trastuzumab, Pertuzumab, Lapatinib. The results of many studies show that the combination of monoclonal antibodies with chemotherapy is more effective than the group receiving chemotherapy alone in treating Her-2 receptor-positive breast cancer.

4. Radiotherapy treatment

Radiation therapy has been widely applied in the treatment of breast cancer, including:
Adjuvant radiotherapy with radical mastectomy. Symptomatic radiation therapy: in cases of breast cancer with bone metastases, brain metastases, radiation therapy with the aim of relieving symptoms for the patient.

5. Endocrine treatment

Breast cancer with hormone receptor positive accounts for about 60%. Therefore, endocrine therapy in breast cancer is also an important and highly effective treatment method.
This method includes:
Ovarian removal (for young menstruating women) Taking anti-estrogens such as: Tamoxifen (first-line hormone) for 5-10 years. Aromatase inhibitors Anastrozole, Letrozole (second-order endocrine, only used in postmenopausal women), in addition to other endocrine drugs of the next generation, are highly effective in metastatic breast cancer that has failed first-line hormones. 1,2 like: Fulvestrant, Palbociclib...

6. Immunotherapy

Today, with the explosion of immunotherapy in cancer treatment, a number of studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of PD-L1 immunoreceptor antagonists in combination with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer. negative receptor triad.

To better understand the method of self-immunotherapy, please refer to the following article:
Cure cancer with a new method: Natural immunotherapy at Vinmec Times City Hospital

7. Palliative treatment

Besides the above treatment methods, care measures to reduce the side effects of treatment, as well as psychological treatments and mental support for the patient are also very important to help the patient quickly. quickly return to normal life.
With advanced breast cancer, treatments for pain and symptom relief are very important to make life more comfortable for patients.
If you need more advice and examination at Vinmec Health System Hospitals nationwide, please book an appointment on the website for service.