The Portuguese League Against Cancer, the Portuguese Society of Senology and the associations Careca Power and Evita will launch a campaign that warns of the existence of different types of breast cancer, with different prognoses and treatments.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Gabriela Sousa, from the Portuguese Society of Senology, explains that the different subtypes of breast cancer are treated differently, underlining: “It is very important that patients have information about their tumor type.what treatment weapons we have at our disposal to help control the disease down the road and also to understand that these tumors have different prognoses.”
“Depending on the type of tumor, we may have earlier recurrences or recurrences we may be aware of slightly different signs and symptoms depending on the type of tumor. Increasingly, each tumor is a tumor”, said the specialist.
The campaign, which also has the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo as partners, reports on the existence of four different subtypes of breast cancer.
“It is a contribution to the literacy of a population who face a set of decision-making related to different types of diseases. It is very important that the patient takes more and more control of her decisions, ”said Gabriela Sousa.
The oncologist argues that it is important to go from a “paternalistic medicinefor a “more shared medicine”, emphasizing that “in oncology, communication and sharing decisions is a very important aspect for the evolution of the disease”.
“The patient, feeling part of the process, ends up committing him to adherence to treatment,” he adds.
In the past, he added, “patients asked more about the grade of their tumor, today they ask if their tumor is hormonal. They already effectively understand that there are different types of tumor.”
The name of the four subtypes of breast cancer, he explained, comes from the molecular classification. “We do not do molecular classification in all situations, but we have an equivalence in histopathological classification. What the pathologist tells us when doing the biopsy already allows us to characterize the tumors into four subtypes”.
“Each patient may have a different disease, because surely we still lack a lot of knowledge about how this disease interacts with the organism where it develops”, highlighted Gabriela Sousa.
In addition to the four subtypes of breast cancer, there are also cases related to genetic alterations, which can be hereditary (germline alterations) or that only manifest in the tumor itself (somatic alterations), whose search must be carried out “in the case of cancer “advanced” breast cancer (metastasis), given that the diagnosis of these alterations may have implications for the treatment of the disease”.
It is also indicated to perform the determination of germinal alterations whenever the probability of an alteration is greater than 10% and in some situations, such as the diagnosis of breast cancer at an early age (before the age of 40), bilateral breast cancer , triple negative breast cancer or in the case of a diagnosis of male breast cancer.
The campaign has two ambassadors, the radio host Joana Cruz and the “digital influencer” Sara Rodrigues, and features four video testimonials from four women diagnosed with breast cancer, that is, “at the same time, what unites them and separates them“.
Gabriela Sousa also explained that, in terms of symptoms, the fact that it is a different disease does not substantially change the signs to take into account: any change in the breast (including skin and nipple), breast deformities or nodules, nipple discharge or non-healing wounds.
The specialist also highlights the importance of joining the National Detection Program, since breast cancer “can be detected before the onset of symptoms, and the earlier, the greater the chance of cure.”
Source: Observadora
