Risk Factors
Non-genetic breast cancer risk factors include obesity, being at least 35 years old while yet to give birth, and not lactating. Early detection is expedited by routinely checking one’s own breast condition (memeriksa kondisi payudara sendiri – “sadari”) and getting clinical breast checks (pemeriksaan payudara secara klinis – “sadanis”), especially if you are in the high-risk group. According to the Ministry of Health, 70% of breast cancer patients are already at stage 3 of the disease when it is detected, while the average survival prognosis of a breast cancer patient is 90%-95% survival for five years if the disease is detected in Stage 1, 70%-75% survival for five years if detected in Stage 2, and only 10%-25% survival for five years if detection occurs during Stages 3 and 4.
At the same event, Dr. dr. Samuel J. Haryono, Sp.B(K), Onk, reported that other than early detection, we also need to perform mass filtering, with immediate follow-up to ensure proper, early treatment. The filtering is expressed in categories based on point scores in an 0-6 range. “0” means the person has no risk of breast cancer whatsoever, while “6” means that there is a very high potential for the person to suffer from a malignant breast cancer. The filtering categories are “Low Risk”, “Medium Risk”, and “High Risk”. All three may be followed up with either USG or mammography tests.
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Meanwhile, dr. Adityawati Ganggaiswari, Director of MRCCC Siloam Semanggi Hospital, declares that to better ensure a cure, other than early detection, cancer patients require oncological surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy services, concentrated at a single site to make it easier for them to get their disease treated. However, in cancer as in most diseases, prevention is always better than cure. And the best way of prevention is, as always, the adoption of a healthful lifestyle: routine consumption of nutritious foods, routine physical exercise, sufficient rest, avoiding tobacco smoke and proper stress management. (est)