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or a second opinion?
Breast cancer: a single number is available to you for a rapid and appropriate diagnosis.
Description
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in France and remains the leading cause of cancer death among women. If detected early, this cancer can be cured in 9 out of 10 cases. An estimated 58,500 new cases of breast cancer among women were diagnosed in France in 2018.
In more than 99% of cases, breast cancer affects women but it can also affect men. Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that develops in the breast. There are different types of breast cancer depending on the cells from which they develop. The most common breast cancers (95%) are adenocarcinomas, which develop from the epithelial cells of the mammary gland. A distinction is made between in situ cancers and invasive cancers. There are other rare types of breast cancer. |
A SINGLE NUMBER
The announcement of an anomaly, the carrying out of tests and the waiting for the results, the consultation of announcement and the initiation of treatment … are all stages generating stress. In order to reduce as much as possible this phase of care on the one hand and to accelerate the initiation of treatment on the other hand, the CGFL is committed to a structured organization guaranteeing a diagnosis and rapid treatment of breast cancers.
A single call number: +33 3 45 34 81 00
A single call number has been set up for patients or their treating physicians, intended to provide a suitable and rapid response to any request following a clinical anomaly or a suspicion of an anomaly.
Advice on difficult cases is given priority and appointments are scheduled within a week. In all cases, a report of the imaging tests and, where applicable, the histological results, is sent to the prescribing physicians. When the abnormality is suspected of being cancerous, if the patient expresses the wish to be treated at the Georges-François Leclerc Center, an appointment with a surgeon is scheduled on the day of the sample collection within a period not exceeding 10 days.
In some cases, patients may benefit from innovative treatment such as intraoperative radiotherapy, and they then meet with the radiation oncologist on the same day. Whenever possible, outpatient care is offered to the patient. At the end of the consultation, all necessary appointments are scheduled by the secretary. A consultation with a psychologist is always offered, as well as a consultation with a nurse (essential in cases of mastectomy).
Treatments
Different types of treatments can be used to treat breast cancer: surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies. Sometimes only one type of treatment is necessary. In other cases, a combination of treatments is useful to better control the disease.
SURGERY
Two types of surgery can be performed: breast-conserving surgery, called lumpectomy or segmentectomy (involves removing the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue) or non-breast-conserving surgery, called mastectomy (involves removing the entire breast including the areola and nipple).
In the event of a mastectomy, different breast reconstruction techniques may be offered to you (reconstruction using a latissimus dorsi flap, lipomodelage, reconstruction of the areola-nipple plate, reduction mammoplasty for symmetrization, breast reconstruction using a prosthesis, etc.).
CHEMOTHERAPY
Chemotherapy is not routinely offered to all breast cancer patients. Its usefulness is assessed based on the stage of the cancer at diagnosis and risk factors for recurrence.
For invasive cancers, chemotherapy may be necessary after or before surgery.
TARGETED THERAPIES
Targeted therapies are drugs that block specific mechanisms of cancer cells.
RADIOTHERAPY
For in situ and invasive breast cancers, radiotherapy can be used in addition to surgery (adjuvant radiotherapy) with the aim of destroying cancer cells that may remain following the procedure and reducing the risk of recurrence.
For some metastatic breast cancers, breast radiation therapy may be considered to slow the tumor’s growth. Radiation therapy is also used to treat brain or bone metastases.
Radiotherapy is preferably performed before breast reconstruction. In this case, reconstruction is usually delayed.
HORMONE THERAPY
Some breast tumors are characterized by being hormone-sensitive, meaning that female hormones (estrogen, progesterone), naturally produced by the body, stimulate their growth. Hormone therapy is a treatment that involves preventing the stimulating action of female hormones on cancer cells.
