A new drug that promises to reduce the risk of relapse or recurrence of breast cancer by approximately 30%, will arrive in Panama starting this March.
This drug is aimed at people diagnosed with breast cancer in its early phase.
According to the National Oncological Institute (ION) in Panama, between 2019 and 2020, more than 1,700 new cases of breast cancer were registered, while worldwide it is estimated that 1.7 million people contract breast cancer per year, and that 522,000 die from this cause.
The diagnosis of 2019, in Panama (1,308 cases of breast cancer) had a rate of 83.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, for that same year there were 265 deaths from the disease, so with the arrival of this drug it is expected to be able to save more lives after early detection of the disease and prevent patients from relapsing with this condition.
This treatment presented by Asofarma SA, is a therapeutic alternative for patients with early stage breast cancer who have already completed the indicated treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy and/or rays.
According to Asofarma, breast cancer therapy will depend on the location in which it is located.
“While the condition is in the breast, with or without involvement of the axillary nodes, treatment will include tumor and armpit surgery, with the addition of pre-surgical (neoadjuvant) and/or post-surgical (adjuvant) therapies that have the with the objective of reducing the possibility of tumor relapse and promoting healing,” they indicated, assuring that these therapies include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, therapies directed at the presence of a gene, etc.
They concluded that the selection of treatment will be made by the oncologist and is based on different health parameters, which include the type of tumor, size, lymph node involvement, hormone receptors, positivity for any gene, factors that determine the personal risk of each patient.
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