Breast cancer screening increasingly the lives of Victorian women ...

Epworth breast cancer surgeon Jane O?Brien. Picture: Tess Follett
Source: Herald Sun

MORE Victorian women are surviving breast cancer. Figures show 89 per cent are alive five years after diagnosis.

Specialist breast and oncoplastic surgeon Jane O?Brien said one of the reasons was early-stage detection and that was largely by breast screening.

?There is all this debate about over-diagnosis with breast screening,? she said.

Miss O?Brien, with Epworth Breast Service, said people should not be dissuaded from screening.

?There is a possibility, I think, women perhaps between 45 and 50 will soon be routinely invited to be screened.?

She said there was no evidence to support screening women 40 and under in the absence of a family history.

Individualised treatments, Miss O?Brien said, had also revolutionised treatment.

?Increasingly, breast cancers are being treated on their biology,? she said.

Miss O?Brien said that with the HER2-positive breast cancers, which made up 20 per cent, the drug Herceptin had revolutionised treatment.

?And you can?t overlook the importance of the anti-hormonal agents.

?Arguably, if you had to say what was the single-most important factor in the last 30-40 years in breast cancer treatment, it would have to be anti-hormonal agents because a significant proportion of breast cancers feed on hormones.?

Miss O?Brien said advances in surgery had also played a big role, particularly with quality-of-life issues.

?The use of immediate reconstruction and the willingness of surgeons to feel that an immediate reconstruction was a reasonable option,? she said.

?And also the emerging option of oncoplastic surgery at the time of lumpectomy.

?And for women who have proven BRCA genes, a genetic link to breast cancer, their access to a variety of options nowadays in terms of risk-reduction surgery.?

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Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/breast-cancer-screening-increasingly-the-lives-of-victorian-women/story-fn7x8me2-1226274637535

Source: http://cancerkick.com/2012/02/18/breast-cancer-screening-increasingly-the-lives-of-victorian-women/

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