New progress in bone cancer treatment in Vietnam

Bone cancer is a rare disease but has a high rate of metastasis and mortality, especially in the young age group from 10-20 years old.

Medical news on February 28: New progress in bone cancer treatment in Vietnam

Bone cancer is a rare disease but has a high rate of metastasis and mortality, especially in the young age group from 10-20 years old.

New advances in bone cancer treatment

Bone cancer is a malignant disease that can originate from bone components, such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and bone connective tissue cells. In particular, primary bone cancer is highly malignant and metastasizes very early. The disease often develops slowly, with unclear symptoms, causing patients to often come to the hospital at a late stage.

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This becomes even more difficult when bone cancer often occurs in young people, from 10-20 years old, the age when bones develop strongly. The disease not only causes health effects but also causes psychological damage to the patient and family.

In Vietnam, although major hospitals have implemented bone cancer treatment, there are still many challenges. Late diagnosis due to lack of knowledge about the disease in the community and shortage of specialist doctors and modern diagnostic equipment still make it difficult to detect and treat promptly.

Currently, bone cancer is treated with a multimodal approach, including chemotherapy, surgical resection, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Surgery is the main treatment method, in which limb-sparing surgery is considered the standard.

Limb-sparing surgery removes the tumor without amputating the entire limb, thereby preserving the patient's motor function. After the tumor is removed, the healthy bone is reconstructed with artificial materials or allografts, or autogenous bone grafts that have been treated with liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen is a new and advanced bone cancer treatment method, applied for the first time in Vietnam by Vinmec International General Hospital. This method uses extremely low temperature (-196°C) of liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy cancer cells in the bone segment containing the tumor while preserving the bone structure.

The advantage of this method is that it only requires one surgery, the bone segment processing time is short (from 30 to 60 minutes) and does not require other complicated processing methods such as irradiation. The bone segment grafted back into the patient's body will assimilate with the patient's bone after a period of time, helping to restore the function and shape of the limb, maintaining the motor function.

Not only that, the liquid nitrogen method also has lower treatment costs compared to other bone grafting or artificial joint methods, helping to save significantly for patients.

The liquid nitrogen bone cancer treatment method was first deployed at Vinmec in September 2022, when the hospital successfully performed the first surgery on a 16-year-old patient in Hanoi.

Since then, the hospital has successfully performed 24 cases with positive results. The bone healing rate of patients reached 90% after about 1 year, with a quick recovery time, many patients can walk painlessly within just 3-6 months after surgery.

In particular, the local recurrence rate of this method is very low, only less than 5%. Many bone cancer patients in Japan have lived healthy lives after 20 years if treated early with this method.

One of the outstanding advantages of the liquid nitrogen method is the ability to preserve the joint and the growth cartilage without having to remove it. Once the bone graft is killed with liquid nitrogen, it will be implanted into the body and assimilated into the body after a year, allowing the bone to grow in length according to the growth age. This is extremely important for young patients, when the difference in limb length can seriously affect the function and aesthetics of the limb.

The liquid nitrogen method is currently being applied in countries such as Japan, Greece, Türkiye, and China, and has shown high treatment efficiency. With initial success in Vietnam, this method is opening up new treatment opportunities for thousands of bone cancer patients, helping them retain motor function and improve their quality of life.

The treatment of bone cancer with liquid nitrogen is becoming an important step forward in medicine, especially in Vietnam. These advances not only help patients live a long and healthy life but also help preserve limbs, improving the quality of life for patients. This is a new hope for bone cancer patients, opening up a brighter future in the treatment of this disease.

Myocardial infarction due to subjective coronary artery disease

Returning to Vietnam from France for Tet, Mr. Canh, 63 years old, suddenly had chest pain due to a heart attack. The doctor placed a stent to restore blood flow in time.

Mr. Canh had a history of high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, and had an anterior interventricular artery stent placed eight years ago. After treatment, he only had three follow-up visits, took prescription medication for a few months, and then stopped. “Because every time I made an appointment in France, I had to wait a long time, and I felt healthy, so I thought there was no need for follow-up visits,” he explained. He also could not kick his smoking habit, continuing to smoke nearly a pack a day.

Two days before being admitted to the hospital, Mr. Canh had a dry cough, difficulty breathing, and fatigue. He thought it was a common cold, so he bought medicine to take. Two days later, the symptoms worsened with frequent chest pains. He traveled more than three hours from Binh Thuan to Tam Anh General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for emergency treatment.

On February 27, Dr. Pham Hoang Trong Hieu, who treated the patient, said that the patient had typical signs of acute coronary syndrome (a condition of severe narrowing of the heart's blood vessels causing damage to the heart muscle due to lack of blood supply). Mr. Canh underwent an urgent coronary angiogram, which determined that the right coronary artery was 95-99% narrowed. "If immediate intervention to recanalize is not performed, the risk of this blood vessel being completely blocked is very high, threatening the patient's life," Dr. Hieu said.

The team placed a stent into the narrowed artery to clear the blood flow to the heart. After 30 minutes, the artery was widened, Mr. Canh no longer had difficulty breathing, his chest pain was reduced, and he was discharged the next day.

Prof. Dr. Vo Thanh Nhan, Director of the Interventional Cardiology Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, shared that Mr. Canh had most of the risk factors for coronary artery disease (high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, smoking), and had a stent placed. Not returning for a check-up and continuing to smoke could cause the artery to re-narrow, leading to a heart attack. Fortunately, Mr. Canh received timely intervention when the disease first started, avoiding dangerous complications.

Similarly, Ms. Lan (67 years old), a Vietnamese American, had dull chest pain. A coronary CT scan determined that the anterior interventricular branch was 80% narrowed, with a risk of progression to severe stenosis and even blockage of blood vessels supplying the heart.

To prevent the risk of myocardial infarction, heart failure complications, and arrhythmia for the patient, Prof. Dr. Vo Thanh Nhan and his team placed 2 stents to dilate the narrowed artery. Ms. Lan no longer had chest pain and was advised on diet and exercise after the intervention to improve cardiovascular health.

Mr. Canh and Ms. Lan are two of thousands of overseas Vietnamese who came to Tam Anh General Hospital for cardiovascular examination and treatment on the occasion of returning to Vietnam for Tet.

“In the US, visiting and seeing a specialist is not as convenient as in Vietnam,” said Ms. Lan. According to Mr. Canh, to get a screening and treatment for chronic diseases in France, the wait is quite long, sometimes 1-2 months, so during the long Tet holiday, overseas Vietnamese, especially those in their 50s and older, tend to combine general or specialized health check-ups.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Nguyen Vinh, Director of the Cardiovascular Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, in just the first two months of the year, more than 4,000 overseas Vietnamese and foreigners had health check-ups at the Tam Anh General Hospital System. Most of them are elderly people, in the risk group for cardiovascular disease due to the heart and blood vessels weakening over time.

Underlying diseases such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity are also common in the elderly, increasing the risk of heart disease. Most patients come from the US (about 40%), Canada, UK, France, Switzerland..., Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Cambodia...

In Vietnam, patients can have a clinical examination with a doctor, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, echocardiogram or perform specialized paraclinical tests such as coronary angiography, cardiac MRI, Holter ECG heart rate monitor...

If intervention or heart surgery is needed, the cost is about 100-200 million VND, only 1/3 compared to other countries in the region. The hospital also stores electronic medical records and supports translation of medical records for the convenience of doctors in the host country for future reference.

Associate Professor Vinh recommends that the elderly, those with a history of high blood pressure, high blood fat (dyslipidemia), smoking, overweight or obesity, diabetes, varicose veins, family history of heart disease, etc. should be screened for cardiovascular disease every 6-12 months.

Eat scientifically, exercise at least 20 minutes a day or 150 minutes a week, do not smoke, maintain a reasonable weight, and get enough sleep to control the disease. Monitor your health at home, take medication regularly, and have regular check-ups to prevent dangerous complications.

Warning signs of lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases with the highest mortality rate in the world. However, lung cancer often has no obvious symptoms in the early stages, making it difficult to detect.

Early detection of this disease can improve the chances of survival, improve the quality of treatment and prolong life.

Recently, Medlatec General Hospital received Mr. VTL (59 years old, Hanoi) for examination with symptoms of headache and pain in the right flank.

Mr. L. had no history of smoking, but he experienced symptoms such as pain in the occipital region (back of the head) and a feeling of heaviness inside. In addition, he also felt a slight pain in the right flank, unrelated to movement or breathing. These symptoms were unclear and easily overlooked, causing Mr. L. to not think he had a serious illness.

However, when going to the hospital for examination and testing, the doctor discovered abnormal signs through chest X-ray.

A heterogeneous opacity appeared at the level of the left lung hilum, suggesting the possibility of cancer. Next, Mr. L. was ordered to have a chest computed tomography (CT) scan with contrast injection, the results showed a semi-solid nodule in the left lung, with Lung RADS classification 4A - suspicious of malignancy.

To confirm the diagnosis, the doctor performed a CT-Scanner guided lung biopsy. The pathology results showed the presence of non-small cell lung carcinoma, a common form of lung cancer. It is worth noting that the histopathological examination determined that it was lung adenocarcinoma.

According to Dr. Tran Van Thu, Deputy Head of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at MEDLATEC General Hospital, lung cancer often develops silently, without obvious symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, many patients only discover the disease at a late stage, when the tumor has metastasized to other organs. At that time, the possibility of successful treatment is very low and the mortality rate is very high.

In Mr. L.'s case, although the cancer was detected at an early stage, the doctor still recommended performing additional tests such as immunohistochemical staining with PDL1 and gene mutation testing to assess the possibility of immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

Dr. Thu also shared that if lung cancer is detected early, patients can have a chance of more effective treatment, prolonging life and improving quality of life. Therefore, regular lung cancer screening is very important, especially for those with high risk factors.

Dr. Tran Van Thu recommends that people in the following groups need to have regular lung cancer screening: people over 50 years old. Long-term smokers. People with a family history of lung cancer.

People working in toxic environments, exposed to chemicals, fine dust, exhaust fumes...

In addition, if symptoms such as unexplained persistent cough, coughing up blood, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, unexplained chest pain, weight loss, fatigue, or voice changes appear, patients should immediately go to a reputable medical facility for timely examination and treatment.

Lung cancer not only affects smokers but can also attack non-smokers. Early detection of lung cancer opens up opportunities for treatment and survival for patients. Therefore, regular lung cancer screening is necessary and important, especially for people with risk factors.

If you or a loved one has suspicious symptoms or is in a risk group, do not hesitate to visit and perform screening tests to detect lung cancer early, thereby helping to protect your health.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tin-moi-y-te-ngay-282-tien-bo-moi-trong-dieu-tri-ung-thu-xuong-tai-viet-nam-d249778.html