Breast Cancer Treatment in Israel

Breast cancer is the second most common malignancy in US women (after skin cancer). It affects approximately 10-12% of women worldwide. It develops in the cells of the mammary glands and can also, rarely, affect men. When detected early, the disease has a very good prognosis, with a five-year survival rate of over 90%.

Risk Factors and Symptoms

The most common signs are the appearance of lump in the breast, change in breast shape and nipple discharge. Lymphadenopathy, bone pain, jaundice and shortness of breath may appear once the disease has metastasized.

Risk factors include, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, HRT following menopause, age, early menarche, family history and genetics. Over half women with a harmful BRCA1 mutation and approximately 45% of women with a harmful BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer at some point in their life.

Screening

• Extensive blood tests (including tumour markers)
• Diagnostic mammography & breast US scan
• Breast/ axillar lymph nodes (FNA+CNB)
• PET CT scan (to rule out metastases); this can be substituted by a regular full body CT scan, however, this its results are less accurate
• Breast physician consultation

All the investigations (including histopathology) can be completed within 5 business days.

Treatment

The course of treatment will depends on the results.

• If mets are discovered, you will be referred for neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
• Providing no distant metastases have been detected, and the tumor is small in size, then the preferred treatment is surgery (lumpectomy or mastectomy). Cost will include 2 days of hospitalization, preoperative isotopic marking of the tumor, revision of dissected regional lymph nodes and histopathological analysis of resected mass.

Following radical mastectomy, there is a possibility of breast reconstruction. Reconstruction can be performed during the operation or 6 months after the first surgery. There are several methods of plastic reconstruction:

• • Two-stage reconstruction with installation of expander and correction of breast asymmetry
  • Single stage autologous muscle reconstruction with expander
  • Single stage autologous flap reconstruction

The choice of reconstruction surgery depends on the surgeon's recommendation and client's preferences.