The Breast Cancer Patients’ Congress Marked a Highly Important Social Responsibility Project by Bringing Scientists and Patients Together! 3

The “Breast Cancer Patients’ Congress,” which aimed to enable patients to directly access up-to-date international information about cancer, was held in Antalya on 28-29 June.

News containing information presented by our esteemed specialist physicians at the “Breast Cancer Patients’ Congress” will be published on our website in 5 sections. You can follow our articles in the “cancer news” section of our website.

Now, let us take a look together at the other highlights of the second day in the article series about this highly valuable congress organized to increase public awareness of breast cancer..

On the second day of the congress, the final panel before noon was moderated by Hacettepe University Medical Oncology Specialist Prof. Dr. Erdem Göker. Prof. Dr. Gökhan Demir from the Department of Medical Oncology at Acıbadem Hospital, who was invited to the podium as the first speaker of the second panel, titled “Innovations in advanced-stage breast cancer,” provided information about hormonal therapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced-stage breast cancer.

Emphasizing at the beginning of his speech that cancer was increasingly becoming an important problem, Prof. Dr. Demir, like the other speakers, said that the most common type of cancer in men was lung cancer and in women it was breast cancer, adding that they wanted to detect cancer at an early stage.

“We can keep breast cancer that presents at an advanced stage as a chronic disease”

Prof. Dr. Gökhan Demir said, “We can keep breast cancer that presents at an advanced stage as a chronic disease. We can improve quality of life with hormone therapies according to the patient’s condition and the structure of the tumor. While doing this, we control treatment-related side effects.”

Stating that advanced-stage breast cancer could be kept under control with hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and bone-directed treatments, Prof. Dr. Demir said, “Hormonal treatments such as tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors and fulvestrant act within DNA and activate the receptor.” He also noted that aromatase inhibitors, which block estrogen instead of tamoxifen, provided more effective protection in postmenopausal women with advanced-stage breast cancer.

Saying that they had numerous chemotherapy agents in their arsenal, Prof. Dr. Demir stated that preventive treatments increased effectiveness in controlling the disease. Prof. Dr. Demir said, “You should contribute to preventive treatment by regularly eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruit, exercising and maintaining your ideal weight.”

“The cancer cell is not that smart. By preventing it from receiving a growth signal, we can make it commit suicide..”

Prof. Dr. Bülent Karabulut from the Department of Oncology at Ege University, who was invited as the second speaker, provided information about targeted drugs in advanced-stage breast cancer.

Prof. Dr. Karabulut said, “By recognizing the cancer cell, we applied treatments specific to the patient’s tumor. We identified the target and made a precise intervention.” Emphasizing that they had not yet made very substantial progress, Prof. Dr. Karabulut said he was hopeful about the future. He stated that identifying the target was important for achieving positive results in the treatment of advanced-stage breast cancer and increasing the patient’s survival time and quality of life. Saying that blocking the main pathways of cancer when determining the target would lead to treatment success, Prof. Dr. Karabulut said, “The cancer cell is not that smart. By not sending it a growth signal, we can make it commit suicide. We can block active cells or proteins.”

Prof. Dr. Karabulut stated that the pressure of fluid accumulating in permeable vessels increased and made drug treatment more difficult, saying, “We can prevent the development of cancer by blocking the vessels that the tumor creates to obtain nourishment.”

Also addressing the HER2 gene in his speech, Prof. Dr. Karabulut said that this gene had 2 copies in a normal cell and that genes that had completed their lifespan subsequently died. Stating that the number of HER2 gene copies was much higher in a cancer cell, he said, “We see that one out of every 4 breast cancer patients is HER2-positive, and we know that this gene has an aggressive structure. Trastuzumab, used as a smart drug, prevents the growth of and kills the HER2-positive tumor by blocking its receptors.” He said that trastuzumab produced positive results in patients carrying the HER2 gene, despite their cancer being more severe.

Prof. Dr. Karabulut concluded his speech by saying, “We succeeded in stopping an aggressive gene with trastuzumab. As a result, the fate of HER2-positive patients changed. Trastuzumab is the most important step taken toward making advanced-stage breast cancer chronic.”

“It is possible for a cancer patient to have a child after treatment through cryopreservation, that is, egg, embryo or sperm freezing methods”

On the second day of the Breast Cancer Patients’ Congress, the final speaker before noon, Ege University Family Planning and Infertility Practice and Research Center Director and Gynecologist Prof. Dr. Ege Göker, informed participants about fertility in breast cancer patients.

Beginning her speech by saying that %10-15’s of couples worldwide had children with assisted support, Prof. Dr. Göker stated that the world’s first test-tube baby was born in 1978 and that the first in vitro fertilization center was established in 1989. She added that patients who developed breast cancer before having children also had requests to have children.

Prof. Dr. Göker said that intensive cancer treatments and the chemotherapy agents used had toxic effects on ovulation, emphasizing that fertility-preserving measures could be taken in breast cancer patients and that, in terms of implementation, this depended on determining factors such as the patient’s age, ovarian reserve, disease course and tumor type. Stating that ovarian and embryo freezing methods were recommended for cancer patients before treatment, she said, “The irregularity of the menstrual cycle and the reduction in ovulatory functions resulting from these intensive cancer treatments are factors that prevent having children. Therefore, it is possible for a cancer patient to have a child after treatment through cryopreservation, that is, egg, embryo or sperm freezing methods.”

Prof. Dr. Göker said that in our country the storage period for frozen eggs, embryos or sperm was limited to 5 years, adding, “For the procedure, individuals must have completed their cancer treatment and must be proven to be disease-free. The most important point here is to have a healthy mother and baby.”