Cancer diagnostics and treatment

Cancer is a complex disease. Just as every person is unique, every cancer is different. Comprehensive diagnostic evaluation is the first and most important step toward successful treatment.

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Diagnostics

In addition to an accurate diagnosis, precise classification of the tumor is equally crucial, as cancer cells can have different characteristics. This is why patients also respond to cancer treatments in different ways.

The process known as “tumor profiling” is becoming increasingly accurate, thanks in particular to the cutting-edge molecular methods used in pathology today. Determination of the molecular properties of the tumor (“biomarkers”) enables precise knowledge to be gained of the characteristics of the cancer cells. This then forms the basis for personalized treatment.

Specialists from various disciplines work together closely at the Comprehensive Cancer Care Vienna to develop the appropriate treatment and to increase the chances of successful treatment based on an accurate diagnosis. They have all of the latest imaging methods, endoscopic procedures, and specialist pathology laboratories available to them for this purpose.

Cancer prevention and early detection

Preventive medicine is a high priority in the Comprehensive Cancer Care Vienna and includes in particular the prevention and early detection of cancer diseases as part of extensive health screening checks (“check-ups”). All examinations can be completed in the shortest possible time in an outpatient setting, and appointments for examinations are organized without any long waiting times.

Cancer cannot always be prevented from developing through a healthy lifestyle alone. However, some types of cancer can be detected effectively early on and treated successfully in the beginning stages. You should therefore schedule regular health screening checks, as early detection can save lives!

Good examples of this include breast cancer, prostate cancer, bowel cancer, skin cancer, and cervical cancer. Read more on this here:

2022-06-29 Prevention and Early Detection of Cancer

Second opinion

A cancer diagnosis is a shock for most people affected and raises many questions. Has the correct diagnosis been made? Which is the most suitable treatment approach? Patients are advised to get a second opinion from a team of experts so that they can get a clear picture of their disease and make an informed decision.

Comprehensive Cancer Care Vienna provides patients with the opportunity of having their diagnosis reviewed based on the latest findings and of also having a second histopathological examination of the tumor tissue with precise classification of the tumor if required.

All findings are assessed and treatment recommendations prepared by a recognized team of experts who are renowned specialists of international repute. A second opinion is offered both at the hospital as well as remotely.

Modern drug therapy

Comprehensive Cancer Care Vienna has very good access to the latest medications. It has been a main development during the past years that many new specific drugs for cancer treatment have been made available that considerably improve treatment results.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapies will continue to be a crucial pillar in cancer treatment for some time to come. Chemotherapy can often be combined with targeted substances. Non-targeted chemotherapies alone are being used less and less.

No fear of chemotherapy:

Many patients are very afraid of chemotherapy as it is often associated with bad side effects. It should be noted that concomitant treatments are available nowadays, which are administered in parallel with chemotherapy in order to prevent or reduce the side effects as far as possible. Cancer treatment is generally far more humane, far more personalized, and far more tolerable than it was even a few years ago.

Targeted therapies

The focus in modern cancer research is on targeted therapies.

Depending on the presence of certain characteristics in the cancer cells, a drug is sought that is directed specifically at these targets in order to stop the tumor from growing. The advantage of this is that the treatment specifically targets the cancer cells and not the healthy tissue. These types of treatments are therefore usually associated with minor side effects.

Antibody treatment

Antibodies are being used in cancer therapy with increasing success. Known as monoclonal antibodies, they are produced in the laboratory and are able to recognize certain structures on the surface of cancer cells, bind themselves to these, and prevent the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Drug treatments based on molecular biology

The concept of molecular tumor therapy builds on individual treatment of the tumor depending on its genetic composition. Extensive molecular examinations of the tumor tissue are performed during diagnosis aimed at detecting specific gene mutations. These represent the target for specific treatment approaches. Processes in the cell can be directly influenced by a variety of substances.

This allows more and more patients to benefit from personalized tumor therapy (“personalized medicine”).

New nuclear medicine treatment – Lutetium-177-PSMA therapy in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer

PSMA therapy is currently used at advanced stages of prostate cancer where chemotherapy or hormone therapy has failed to stop the disease from progressing. Metastatic prostate carcinomas can be treated in a highly targeted manner using a radiopharmaceutical (= radioactive drug) that binds to the PSMA antigen on the cancer cell. This enables the growth of the tumor to be slowed down or significantly reduced. The therapy can result in pain reduction and a remarkable improvement in quality of life and also prolong the patient’s life.

Prof. Marcus Hacker, MD and Prof. Werner Langsteger, MD are renowned specialists and have been applying this procedure for nine years at the University Hospital Vienna (AKH). They are now able to provide the treatment in an outpatient setting with no long waiting times at Döbling Private Hospital.

Surgery

In surgery, far gentler methods have also proven to be successful. The aim with modern surgical procedures is to be as minimally invasive as possible – on condition, of course, that radical removal of the tumor is achieved.

Major and highly stressful surgical procedures are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Large tumors are often reduced in size with drug therapy to provide a better starting point for surgery and enable gentler surgical procedures.

For certain conditions – particularly cancers of the urinary tract, prostate, and colon – robot-assisted surgery may be used. At Mavie Med, our highly experienced specialists work with the latest-generation da Vinci Xi surgical system.