Breast cancer: it can be prevented –

Changes in lifestyles, such as exercise or physical activity and a healthy diet, or primary prevention, and early diagnosis, with self-examination and mammography, as secondary prevention, are essential to deal with breast cancer.

“However, consultation with a specialist continues to be the first measure for the timely detection of the disease and self-examination makes it possible to detect alterations or anomalies of the breast”, points out the doctor, , surgical oncologist, of the Medical Center.

Mammography is the first imaging method to identify cancer early. An effective alternative that arises from the medical consultation, to rule out the presence of malignant lesions.

Cancer is the disorderly growth of cells. A multifactorial and heterogeneous disease, that is to say that the causes are multiple and the behavior of the disease is different in each one of the cases.

According to World Health Organization, WHOone of the characteristics of cancer is the rapid multiplication of abnormal cells that spread beyond their normal limits and can invade adjacent parts of the body or spread to other organs, a process known as metastasis.

Metastases are the leading cause of cancer death. Every year, according to WHOthe disease causes 521,000 deaths in the world.

A woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every eight minutes. And while one of them dies in the world, 10 more maintain a relentless fight to survive.

Breast cancer, the second, after cervical cancer, the most frequent and deadly in women. Only in Valle del Cauca, 3,014 new cases are detected each year.

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When talking about this pathology, we are probably talking about 200 or 300 different diseases, which is why the treatments differ according to the genotype of each particular case.

For Dr. Gutiérrez, prevention is very important and the paradigms in terms of prevention, presence and mortality of the disease have been changing. “Today we know that healthy lifestyle habits are decisive in the prevention of all diseases and cancer is no exception”, says the surgeon.

Doctors recommend avoiding saturated fats and excess food, liquor and cigarettes, associated with the onset of the disease.

Exercising regularly also prevents factors such as obesity and overweight and stress that is increasingly associated with cancer. A balanced diet is essential, fruits and vegetables prevent the onset of the disease, according to scientific studies.

“Sedentary life and stress are deadly enemies of human health. The emotional factor, chronic stress, plays a very important role in the appearance of cancer ”, points out she is a specialist.

According to studies, when the disease has appeared, physical activity and the reduction of chronic stress and a healthy diet, ostensibly favor the prognosis, receptivity to treatments and improve the quality of life.

“If the cancer is more advanced, the risks of local recurrence or in other organs increase and it is necessary to use additional treatments to surgery, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” says the doctor gutierrez.

According to the specialist, advances in surgery have been mainly due to technologies, such as staplers for suturing the intestine, and laparoscopic or minimally invasive techniques, with fewer incisions, have come to improve disease management.

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“However, we continue to resect organs with cancer in the same way as surgeries have been described for a long time; for example, removing the stomach, pancreas, colon or thyroid, principles of surgery described more than 50 years ago”, says the surgeon.

Today, quadrantectomy and axillary sentinel node biopsy is the most widely used treatment in breast cancer surgery with good cosmetic results and less morbidity or problems for the patient. Surgery for breast cancer is becoming less.

Paradoxically, with the discovery of genetic mutations that are made in selected cases, with a strong family history of breast cancer (for example, two first-degree relatives under the age of 50 with breast cancer), bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction in healthy patients.