New approaches to breast cancer treatment

«Even if it turns out that the tumor is cancerous, there is no need to despair, as it is not a verdict these days. At Slavmed Medical Center today breast cancer detection is carried out even in the earliest stages, which enables us to effectively treat and control the disease, and in the first and second stages the disease can be completely cured, said Aram Akunts in the conversation with NEWS.am Medicine. Unfortunately, the doctor added, our citizens are a little passive when it comes to health prevention and they visit doctor only when the disease is already in its advanced stage. According to the surgeon, the state-of-the-art surgical methods used in Slavmed Medical Center enable to preserve  the woman’s breast in the presence of the disease and, if necessary, perform plastic reconstruction using the latest approaches of contemporary medicine. “In the early stages of the disease, organ preserving surgical interventions are performed, if needed using high-quality implants,” said the surgeon. If there is a need of radiotherapy, the doctor says, the recovery is performed in two stages. First, a fluid-filled expander is placed, which can be emptied and then filled again after the radiotherapy. As for the radical mastectomy, the specialist noted that it is performed only when absolutely necessary, as it is a very traumatic intervention for the woman, both physically and psychologically. According to Aram Akunts, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, but the breast cancer survival rate is higher than that of other organs. “Of course, the age of the patient also matters: the younger the woman is, the more aggressive the tumor  is and the more rapidly the metastasis develop, as the body’s recovery functions in young women are better than that of the elderly ones, ” he said.

The doctor added once again that if ways for the prevention and treatment of this disease have been precedently unavailable in Armenia, now everything, from the most complex examinations up to the advanced surgical technologies has become available. “Early detection is key in the treatment of breast cancer,” concluded the surgeon.