Whether your breast cancer is early or advanced, treatments are available. Sometimes more than one treatment at a time is needed. Together, you and your doctor can develop a treatment plan that is appropriate to your particular situation.
Common treatments for early breast cancer
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Surgery:
for many women with early breast cancer, surgery is an important part of the
treatment. Often doctors allow women to choose between two different
procedures. The first, a
lumpectomy
(sometimes referred to as partial mastectomy), is
breast-conserving surgery in which just the
tumor
and some surrounding normal tissue are removed. In
addition, some
lymph nodes
under the arm may also be removed. The second
procedure, a
mastectomy,
involves the removal of the entire breast. Often some or all of the lymph nodes
under the arm are removed
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Radiation therapy:
radiation therapy
is often used after lumpectomy and partial
mastectomy to kill any cancer cells that may not have been removed during
surgery
-
Chemotherapy:
cytotoxic chemotherapy
is treatment with drugs that attack and kill cancer
cells. Chemotherapy also kills some rapidly growing normal cells, including the
cells in the hair follicles
-
Hormonal treatment:
hormonal treatment
is a common way of treating breast cancer in women
whose tumors are
hormone receptor positive.
These drugs can block the effect of estrogen or reduce estrogen levels, which
reduces the risk of cancer coming back
(recurrence).
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What is adjuvant therapy?
The term
"adjuvant"
means "in addition to." With breast cancer treatment, this means that in
addition to your primary treatment, another type of therapy is being used.
Radiation therapy,
cytotoxic chemotherapy,
and
hormonal treatment
are three common forms of adjuvant treatment. Here is why you might need
adjuvant treatment:
-
After surgery, a small number of cancer cells may still remain in your body
-
Not all patients have these cells, but if you do, they can continue to multiply
and spread
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Adjuvant therapy is given to prevent or delay these cells from multiplying
-
The benefits of adjuvant therapy in breast cancer may include a decreased
chance the cancer will come back, or recur
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