Breast Cancer Treatment: An Overview

Once a cancer is diagnosed and an analysis is completed, beginning a treatment regimen as quickly as possible is essential to a good prognosis. While the chance of recurrence even following "successful" treatment is high for breast cancer patients, improvements and advances in treatment protocols have improved treatment response and reduced mortality rate.

 

Radiation, surgery and chemotherapy drugs are used to treat breast cancer. Each may be used exclusively or in combination with another therapy. The relatively recent addition of hormonal therapy is indicative of how new approaches are helping oncologists improve survival rates among cancer patients.

Depending on the location of tumors, their type and stage of development, the oncologist will recommend a particular option or present a few options. Before proceeding, you need to be comfortable with the option and may wish to seek additional information and consultation.

Radiation therapy may be used at all stages of breast cancer, alone or in combination with surgery and/or chemotherapy. Used to control or shrink the malignancy and to destroy abnormal cells, radiation therapy is used in more than half of breast cancer treatments.

Chemotherapy is a treatment used for some types of breast cancer tumors, but not at all stages of cancer. It may be used to shrink a malignancy prior to radiation therapy or surgery when the tumor is too large or too well attached to healthy tissue to be easily removed surgically. When used following surgery, chemotherapy is used to destroy any potentially remaining cancerous cells, and to extend and improve quality of life.

Surgical procedures, ranging from biopsy to radical mastectomy, are involved in breast cancer treatments. Biopsies are used to remove tissue samples to aid in diagnosis and to assess the degree of proliferation of a cancer. Biopsies are also used to remove small structures, such as lymph nodes, that have been invaded by cancer cells. The lumpectomy is a technique used to remove benign tumors or malignant tumors that have not yet metastasized. A lumpectomy also removes a small amount of normal ("marginal") tissue surrounding the tumor.

The oncologist will recommend mastectomy when much of the breast has been invaded. A partial mastectomy is helpful as a control measure if the malignancy has not metastasized beyond the mammary gland. New techniques have made breast reconstruction possible after mastectomy, and are now often considered key to treatment and rehabilitation.

Breast cancer survival rates are getting higher thanks to improved treatment regimens. This section is divided into multiple articles discussing breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy, with each listed in the menu to the left. To research other breast health or women's health issues, please use the morefocus search box, or see the related topics listed to the left.