Earlier this year, Dr Basma M’Barek, Head of Hy Vong Cancer Care Center at FV Hospital, presented at the “Board meeting on New Therapies in Breast Cancer Treatment and PIK3CA Mutation Metastasis”. Dr M’Barek talked about how a new hormone therapy has proven to be more effective than traditional chemotherapy methods in treating the metastatic stage of the disease.

The goal of hormone therapy is to slow or stop the growth of hormone-sensitive cells by blocking the body’s ability to produce hormones, or by interfering with the mechanism of these cells. Hormone therapy is considered to be an effective treatment which is tolerated well by most patients and offers an improvement in survival compared to chemotherapy with lower or negligible side effects.

However, after a period of treatment, tumours may become unresponsive to traditional hormone therapy. Therefore, in clinical practice, when a cancer advances, chemotherapy is often preferred with only a few patients prescribed hormone therapy.

But recent advancements in molecular biology and growing knowledge of how hormone therapy affects tumours have led to the development of a number of new drugs. These new drugs have a greater impact on tumour cells for a longer period of time, and have the potential to completely replace chemotherapy.

Experts from key HCMC hospitals which treat breast cancer attended the meeting, including doctors from Oncology Hospital, University Medical Center, Cho Ray Hospital and Medic Centre.

Dr Pham Xuan Dung, Director of Oncology Hospital, commented on Dr M’Barek’s appearance.

“By sharing her experiences in France and speaking about new trends in breast cancer treatment around the world, Dr. Basma gave the workshop an international aspect. Despite the brevity of her presentation slot, Dr. Basma proved herself to be an influential participant in this conference.”

These advanced drugs will be available in Vietnam soon.