Cancer treatment: ‘Conservation surgery in breast cancer is safe’

Advances are being made in all areas of breast cancer treatment.

LAHORE: Breast conservation surgery along with radiation has become an accepted alternative to complete removal of breast for patients on an early stage of breast cancer because of a comparable overall survival rate and better quality of life.

Dr Penelope Louise McManus, consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon from Castle Hill Hospital, East Yorkshire, UK, said this at a seminar at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Saturday.

The seminar was organised by the UHS Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT). Around 150 surgeons and oncologists attended the seminar. Dr McManus is the first breast surgeon in the UK to use lipomodelling for breast reconstruction. She teaches the technique at the Royal College of Surgeons.

She said most of patients treated with breast conservation therapy (BCT) achieved an acceptable cosmetic result.

She said plastic surgeons should be involved in the planning stage of this treatment.

She stressed the significant improvement in the mental and emotional well being of patients.



Removal of the whole breast is now advised to only 30 per cent of women having breast cancer in the UK, she said, adding that conserving breast posed no added risk to the patient.

UHS Vice Chancellor Prof IA Naveed said breast cancer was the third most common cancer in the world. With over half a million new cases in the world every year, only lung and stomach cancers occurred with greater frequency.

Breast cancer accounted for about 9 per cent of cancer cases in the world. He said it was most common in North America and Western Europe and rare in Far East (China and Japan).

“In Pakistan, it is the commonest cancer in women and usually affects younger women”, he said.

Prof Naveed said breast cancer was best managed using a multidisciplinary approach, involving the expertise of surgical, medical and radiation oncologists, as well as other specialists.

“Recent innovations in the surgical management of breast cancer have revolutionised the management of this disease in recent years advances are constantly being made in all areas of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

CILT Director Prof Dr Arif Khawaja, a UK-trained oncoplastic breast surgeon, stressed the need to dispel the wrong perception among women that removing the whole breast was the best option in the treatment of cancer.

He lauded the services of INMOL Hospital, Lahore, in treating breast cancer patients. He also stressed the need for a multidisciplinary approach in treating individual patients.

Later, Prof Zahid Niaz from Jinnah Hospital presented some cases of breast cancer to the multidisciplinary panel.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2013.