Global Courant
Breast cancer can come back -it is known as metastatic breast cancer or advanced cancer-, and when it happens, the treating doctor and the patient will look for alternatives that allow them to extend and maintain a good quality of life.
This is the reality of 30% of women who have ever had breast cancer and the situation of a significant number of Guatemalans.
With the aim of sharing clinical evidence and providing inputs for decision-making, recently, Dr. Saúl Campos-Gómez, an oncologist at the Social Security Institute of Mexico, and Dr. Isabel Blancas, an oncologist at the San Cecilio Clinical Hospital in Granada, Spain, met with doctors from Guatemala to review clinical information on innovative drugs, which show that the combination of iCDK 4/6 therapies and endocrine therapy have better results than those receiving chemotherapy.
This would allow Guatemalan patients to redefine their overall survival expectation and have more time to carry out activities and be part of events that are important to them.
Overall survival is defined as the percentage of patients who are still alive after a certain period after diagnosis or treatment of a disease such as cancer.
It is one of the most relevant characteristics for doctors and patients when choosing a certain therapy.
In 2017, a survey was carried out on oncologists and patients with breast cancer in order to understand the therapeutic goals in the treatment of said pathology and both parties agreed that the main goal is overall survival.
Therefore, the goal of treatment for advanced breast cancer is to help the patient live longer, and to do so with a good quality of life, even in the most difficult cases.
In this sense, Novartis has managed to advance with an oral therapy that overcomes chemotherapy and its adverse effects, facilitating adherence to treatment with longer overall survival time and clinical safety.
This information is of interest to the medical community and to all Guatemalans by virtue of its relevance to guide decision-making and perform cost-effectiveness considerations.
Active search and diagnosis in the early phase of breast cancer improve the chances of success in cure and survival.
Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer in the world and the most common cancer among women. It is ideal for women over 40 years of age to maintain regular check-ups with their doctor, so that preventive imaging studies (mammography and/or echosonography) are indicated in a timely manner, as the case may be, and thereby achieve early diagnosis of the disease, all of which translates into better treatment outcomes.
Ana Ibáñez, physician, Medical Director of the Oncology Area for Novartis at CANDEAN
Making this type of information available to the medical community, authorities and patients is extremely important to achieve a positive impact on the lives of patients and their families in Guatemala.
