If my breast cancer is gone, why do I need hormonal treatment?
Hormonal treatment
is a way of helping to keep breast cancer from
coming back. This type of treatment can decrease the production of
hormones
in the body or block the body's natural hormones
from reaching breast cancer cells, which may make a
tumor
grow larger. In early breast cancer, hormonal
treatment has been shown to help reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back
(recurrence).
Below is some information that can help you understand how hormonal treatment
works.
Understanding the role of hormone receptors
Some breast cancer tumors need certain natural hormones to grow. These have
receptors
for the hormones estrogen and/or progesterone.
-
Hormone receptors
are very small parts of a cell. If
estrogen
is present, it will attach to estrogen receptors,
possibly making the tumor grow larger
-
Tumors with hormone receptors are called estrogen and/or progesterone receptor
positive, or
hormone receptor positive
-
Results of the
biopsy
on your cancer give your medical team information about whether your cancer is hormone
receptor positive
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How hormonal treatment for breast cancer works
Different types of hormonal treatments work in different ways:
-
Drugs called
antiestrogens
are a type of hormonal treatment that works by blocking estrogen receptors. In
other words, these drugs interfere with breast cancer growth by attaching to
estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells. This means estrogen itself cannot
attach to cancer cells. So even though estrogen is present, its activity is
blocked. The most common antiestrogen is tamoxifen
-
Drugs called aromatase inhibitors reduce the action of
aromatase,
an enzyme needed to make the hormone estrogen. ARIMIDEX is an aromatase
inhibitor. It lowers the amount of estrogen produced in the body
Although there are different types of hormonal treatment, it should not be
confused with other treatments:
-
Hormonal treatment
is not the same as
cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Cytotoxic (cell-killing) chemotherapy can kill both cancer cells and some other
healthy cells in the body. Hormonal treatment works by blocking the effect of
estrogen or lowering the amount of estrogen in the body
-
Hormonal treatment for breast cancer is not the same as
hormone replacement therapy
(HRT). Hormonal treatment is used to
block
the effect of estrogen or
reduce
estrogen levels. The goal is to keep estrogen from reaching cancer cells and
stimulating cell growth. HRT, however, supplies estrogen to menopausal women to
help ease the signs and symptoms of
menopause
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