1 Sep 2014Review
The Breast Unit. Update on advantages and its open issues
Gianluca Franceschini 1Alba Leone 1Riccardo Masetti 1
Affiliations
Article Info
1 Multidisciplinary Breast Center, Catholic University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Ann. Ital. Chir., 2014, 85(5), 407-412;
Published: 1 Sep 2014
Copyright © 2014 Annali Italiani di Chirurgia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Breast cancer is acknowledged as an international priority in health care. It is currently the most common cancer in women worldwide, with demographic trends indicating a continuous increase in incidence. In the World, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be approximately 2,000,000 new cases of breast cancer per year. The enormous burden placed by this disease both on the population and on health care systems explains the increasing efforts and resources that have been devoted over the years to the search for a systematic and optimized strategy in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Today, the Breast Unit model is identified as the gold-standard to ensure optimized patient-centered and research-based clinical services for breast cancer patients improving survival rates and patients’ quality of life by a multidisciplinary approach in breast care. The present work reviews the lines of development of this multidisciplinary model of breast cancer treatment and analyzes the requirements of a high quality Breast Unit, its potential advantages and the many open issues that still require proper definition and implementation.
Keywords
- Breast Unit
- Breast cancer
- Breast center
- Multidisciplinary treatment