Treatments for Breast Cancer
Breast cancer second leading cancer in number of deaths caused to women. In the United States, as many as 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, along with about 2,000 men. Treatments for breast cancer include surgeries to remove the cancerous cells, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy and hormone therapy. Often the treatment for breast cancer is a combination of these methods.
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Surgical options
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A lumpectomy is a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor or lump with the goal of saving as much of the rest of the breast as can be saved, and to keep the cancer from spreading elsewhere in the patient. A lumpectomy is not a viable option for large tumors or for people who have cancer deep inside the tissue of the breast. A lumpectomy is followed up by radiation treatments to kill as much of the remaining cancer cells as possible. A radical mastectomy is a surgical procedure in which the whole breast is removed, including some of the lymph nodes under the arm where cancer may spread. Partial mastectomies take out the tumor and surrounding breast tissue, while a simple mastectomy sees all breast tissue removed.
Radiation treatment
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Radiation therapy employs a high-energy type of X-ray to shrink a tumor in the breast and to destroy cancer cells. Radiation is often recommended for patients following breast cancer surgery. It normally will start three or four weeks after the surgery has been performed and last for six weeks with five treatments a week. These painless treatments are about a half hour long but side effects can include such symptoms as fatigue, tenderness in the breast region and nausea.
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Chemotherapy
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After surgery to remove breast cancer, some type of chemotherapy is often utilized. These cancer-killing treatments are administered to keep breast cancer from coming back and from spreading to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy comes with many side effects, as both cancer cells and healthy cells are affected by the drugs. Hair loss, tiredness and vomiting are frequently experienced by people undergoing chemotherapy. Other effects of this treatment include some loss of concentration and memory, with patients sometimes struggling to find the right word during a conversation.
Hormone therapy
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Some types of breast cancer in women can be treated with hormone therapy to slow down the cancer's growth. Cancers of this nature make use of the estrogen and progesterone hormones in a woman's system to spread, but hormone therapy can block the cancer cells from making use of these substances. Medications such as Nolvadex, Femara and Arimidex are used to inhibit cancer cells from using estrogen. These drugs can potentially kill the cancer and reduce the size of tumors.
Targeted drug treatment
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Certain drugs are designed to specifically target cancer cells and keep them from thriving. Avastin is one such drug. It has the ability to keep cancer cells from growing new blood vessels, which results in the death of the cell. Drugs such as Tykerb focus on a protein in cancer patients that has been linked to abnormal cell growth. Targeted drug therapy is commonly employed along with chemotherapy to stop the spread of the disease in breast cancer sufferers.
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