HEALTH experts urged Filipino women to get tested early for breast and cervical cancers, noting the two ailments are the most common and fatal forms of cancer for women.

More than 10,000 Filipino women have died of breast cancer, and 4,000 of cervical cancer in 2020 alone.

Dr. Josephine Tolentino, an oncologist, said that the triple-negative breast cancer is a form of aggressive breast cancer that does not contain any of the estrogen or progesterone receptors. It also contains a HER2 protein that causes the malignant cells to grow quickly.

“And it grows at a faster rate than other breast cancer and it has a higher chance to come back than other types of breast cancer,” Tolentino said on Tuesday.

Among those susceptible to triplenegative breast cancer are young women and those with BRCA or breast cancer gene.

Tolentino said that the best approach to treatment is multidisciplinary — under a team of oncologists, pathologists, radiologist, breast surgeon and psychiatrist.

She noted that patients under such multidisciplinary care have recorded an increased survival rate of as much as five years.

Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society Vice President Dr. Efren Domingo called on women to get vaccinated for cervical cancer since most cases of the disease were attributed to the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted through sexual contact.

Domingo said young women are getting sexually active at age 15, hence the need to be vaccinated against HPV.