Breast Cancer Treatment

Learning about the various breast cancer treatment options, what to expect with breast cancer treatment, and how breast cancer treatment options relate to the type and stage of cancer, helps a women understand the treatment plan recommended by her doctor. Becoming informed about breast cancer and breast cancer treatments helps to alleviate any surprises, which can help a women better cope with treatment. Because the health of the body can be affected by the health of the mind, it is beneficial to understand the breast cancer treatment options and to have a positive outlook about your breast cancer treatment.

Research & Advancements in Cancer Treatment

There has been much research and development into treatments for breast cancer over the last ten years and many advancements have been made. The choices of treatment that a woman has today for breast cancer is greatly improved from the limited choices women had in the past. The primary breast cancer treatment methods include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal treatment (anti-estrogen based). These four methods are often used in combination with each other or as adjuvant therapy (when a secondary treatment follows the primary treatment).

Generally, there are three types of treatment categories:

Local Treatment (Regional Treatment) - Surgery and radiation are local treatment methods. These type of treatments are focused on the tumor area in the breast tissue and local lymph system.

Systemic Treatments - Systemic treatments include chemotherapy and hormonal treatments. These type of treatments treat the whole body and target cancer that has spread to other parts of the body from the original site (metastases).

Alternative Therapy - Alternative methods (holistic therapy) have been shown to be helpful but not proven to cure. For curing breast cancer, the best treatment options are the local and systemic treatment choices.

An overview of the treatments available today are:

Breast Cancer Surgery - Surgery has been the primary treatment option for quite some time. Unlike surgery in the past however, today's surgeons can limit the treatment area. By removing only the tumor and surrounding area, they are able to leave a substantial amount of breast tissue in place. The surgical techniques used today are greatly improved from the days of the radical mastectomy, when all the breast tissue was removed. Even when a mastectomy is performed today, they are much less drastic than they were years ago.

Most breast surgery performed today is the lumpectomy, which is considered breast-conserving therapy. With a lumpectomy, the surgeon removes only the area of the tumor. After a patient has undergone a lumpectomy, follows-up treatments with radiation therapy are performed to treat the surrounding area and prevent a recurrence.

Radiation Therapy - Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays or gamma rays to selectively target the treatment area. Radiation therapy is usually given after breast cancer surgery. It is very effective in eliminating the recurrence of cancer cells in the area where the tumor was removed.

Chemotherapy - Chemotherapy is used to treat cancer thru out the whole body. Some types of breast cancer are more likely to spread than others. Chemotherapy is often suggested if the breast cancer is found in the lymph nodes, the tumor is large, or the breast cancer is found at a higher and advanced stage. Chemotherapy is sometimes used alone and sometimes in combination with either surgery or radiation.

Hormone Therapy - Some types of breast cancer will grow and spread in the presence of the estrogen hormone. With this type of breast cancer, anti-estrogen hormone therapy is usually used in order to lower the levels of estrogen in the body and prevent the cancer cells from growing and spreading to other parts of the body.

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