Leading US breast cancer experts are meeting this week in Texas to present studies that could change the way breast cancer is treated in the US.
Doctors are thinking about what works and what doesn't, and this means that tens of thousands of women could miss out on gruelling treatments that don't actually improve their survival.
New research presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium looked at hundreds of elderly patients treated with or without radiation and found no difference in overall survival and very small differences in recurrence rates after 5 years.
Women who may be able to skip radiation are over 65 who have low-grade hormone-driven breast cancer.
Another study found that surgery may not be necessary for women with advanced breast cancer. Doctors in India studied women with breast cancer whose widespread tumours had shrunk with initial chemotherapy.
Half had a mastectomy or lumpectomy, half did not. Survival was equal in both groups, suggesting that these women may be spared the ordeal of having their breasts cut off.
"This kind of study opens the door to thinking about identifying different subgroups of people who have really good prognoses for the disease and can be spared certain treatments," says Dr Freya Schnabel of NYU Langone Medical Center.
Other recent research concludes that vigorous exercise may offer some protection against aggressive breast cancers.
Women who over a long period of time physically exercised 3 or more hours per week had a 47 per cent reduction in the risk of developing these more aggressive types of breast cancer," said Dr Schnabel.
These women did exercise consisting of brisk walking, tennis or aerobics.
Biosalud has a complementary cancer treatment.
Studying each specific case, at Biosalud, following the line of research described above, we believe that certain lifestyle habits (e.g. physical exercise) together with conventional treatments that the patient follows, can help to have the best possible chance of overcoming a situation as serious as cancer.
We combine a complementary cancer treatment nutritional, immunogenetic, immunoactivating, oxygenating and psycho-emotional, using the techniques of biological medicine.
Prior to this, an early diagnosis and causal diagnosis of cancer can be made, looking precisely for the cause that has generated the cancerous process, an area that is neglected by many specialised units.
