Minimal scarring, maximal confidence: Breast cancer treatment's latest stride

SHAH ALAM - Breast cancer treatment has evolved significantly, leaving behind the era of severe scarring and disfigurement, breast surgeons revealed.

Modern techniques, remarked oncologist Dr Teoh Li Ying, prioritised minimal scarring and immediate reconstruction, offering patients renewed confidence in their appearance post-treatment.

“We offer immediate reconstruction sometimes and we also do it as a later procedure,” said Dr Teoh in the latest episode of Sinar Daily’s Life and Style podcast, Evolving Trends in Breast Surgery and Breast Cancer Treatments.

She highlighted that these less-scarring and prompt reconstruction surgical techniques offered patients renewed confidence in their appearance post-treatment.

When discussing breast cancer statistics in Malaysia, Dr Teoh stressed the importance of patients coming forward for diagnosis and reporting cases so that it could be recorded in the National Cancer Registry.

Doing so, she said, would allow the authorities to get a better picture of the extent of breast cancer incidences in the country which is crucial for understanding the prevalence of the disease and its impact.

“When we don't report or maybe patient doesn't actually come forward, we will actually lose the numbers,” lamented Dr Teoh from UM Special Centre.

The other guest at the podcast and a fellow oncoplastic breast surgeon, Professor Dr See Me Hoong also echoed Dr Teoh’s view on the importance of patients reporting their cancer cases at an early stage.

The data collected through cancer registries, explained Dr See, helped establish benchmarks for cancer control, survival rates, and improvements in treatment outcomes, providing valuable insights into Malaysia's progress in cancer care.

“It is important because this reporting is going to let us know our benchmark, how high the benchmark and relatively with European or other developed countries. So, that is why we need the numbers,” said Dr See.