Breast Cancer And Common Treatments

by

Mohamed Elmasry

There are numerous factors that determine what course of treatment is prescribed for a case of breast cancer. The main considerations include but are not limited to the following:

The extent to which the cancer has grown and developed within the breast tissue, Whether the cancer has spread to other areas of the body,Whether the cancerous cells are sensitive to the hormone estrogen.

Once a full assessment has been made the treatment options can be explored, with the most common forms being surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and a combination of the above.

Surgery for breast cancer

Surgery is nearly always the first line of treatment with regards to breast cancer. Small lumps can be removed with a lumpectomy whereas larger lumps will require what is called a quadrantectomy i.e. approximately ¼ of the breast tissue is removed. In severe or late stage cases a full mastectomy will need to be performed. This involves removing the entire breast and although harsh it is the best way to ensure the tumor is completely excised.

The majority of breast cancer surgeries effectively remove the cancerous tumour from the impacted breast however related therapies are also widely used to ensure any remaining cells are killed off before they can multiply. For this reason a course of radiotherapy or chemotherapy is preferred following a successful surgery.

Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is regarded as the common type of secondary treatment following surgery. The majority of patients go through radiotherapy no matter what large their main breast cancer tumour was, and so this type of treatment should always be anticipated. Treatment usually begins about a month after surgery treatment and can last for around 6 weeks. The purpose of radiotherapy is to destroy any tiny clusters of breakaway cells that may be remaining following the surgical treatment. With this thought it is essential that the course is completed in its entirety.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy makes use of several cytotoxic drugs that are aimed at rapidly dividing cancerous cells. A course of chemotherapy usually follows surgery when the breast cancer cells have spread through the blood to other areas of the body. The chemotherapy drugs are administered in cycles of 3-4 weeks over the course of four or six months, and their aim is to kill the clusters of cancerous cells that had spread throughout the body before the primary tumor was removed.

Hormone therapy

Sometimes breast cancer tumors are responsive to the hormone estrogen, and it is the existence of this hormone that causes the tumor to grow and develop. In such cases it is often possible to work with specific drugs to block the effects that estrogen has upon the cancerous tissues, the end result being that the tumor stops expanding or even decreases in size.

If a breast cancer tumor is found to be estrogen sensitive then surgery is rarely needed. The patient will be required to take the estrogen-blocking drugs long term however, and in some cases people elect to have surgery instead.

To sum up

Surgery is nearly always the primary form of treatment for breast cancer, unless the tumor is found to be estrogen sensitive. Following a successful surgery, radiotherapy is administered in patients that show no signs of the cancer elsewhere in the body. If however there are signs that the cancer has spread then chemotherapy will be used as a secondary treatment instead.

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