Friday, November 7, 2008

Hormone treated 60% of breast tumors

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria The use of hormone therapy to combat breast cancer is an effective and low toxicity that takes years to apply, and which currently benefit 60% of women affected. Yesterday, experts met at the Negrín to update their knowledge and further refine the protocol of care. The hormone treatment is highly effective for treating breast cancers. But only those that are produced by estrogen, a female hormone, are eligible for this treatment which benefit about 60% of women affected by this disease, said yesterday the head of the Radiation Therapy Oncology service of the University Hospital of Gran Canaria Doctor Negrin. The technique, which takes years to apply, is to provide the patient drugs that suppress the activity of estrogens, which are responsible for stimulating the growth of cancer cells, according to the specialist. With its use prevents the tumor "evolve, so do not go away by what still is now essential surgery," he added. Lara stressed that this is an effective treatment, with very low toxicity to the affected and to be applied under very specific criteria, which leads to the experts to select the patients subsidiaries of the art. With this objective and with an eye to recycling on treating breast cancer, met yesterday about thirty professionals in this field in the first symposium on hormone therapy on breast cancer organized by the hospital and the Canary Islands Institute of Cancer Research. The technique does not replace chemotherapy Hormone therapy is not new, but it has been refined over the years. "60 years ago, doctors remedy the pathology removed the ovaries, thereby estrogen disappeared. The research and advances in pharmacology at present offers us better treatments to combat breast cancer, "said Pedro Lara yesterday. But he clarified that the hormone "is not a substitute for well-known chemotherapy treatment. Each woman and each case is different and thus should be treated. " In this regard he added that in some cases be used as single-treatment in the case of women with advanced ages, mostly-and in others, is applied in combination - usually young women. This treatment offers two choices, on the one hand, blocks the production of hormones in the ovaries and, secondly, it prevents the hormone to stimulate tumor cells by blocking their union. Hormone therapy is based on pills or intramuscular injections that override the contact between estrogen and the tumor, which will apply after chemotherapy and will last for five years, Lara said.

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