Breast Cancer Treatment

We have a lot of ways on how we can treat breast cancer according to its stage and type. Starting with local treatment, some of the treatments are local and in that case they help in treating the tumor in a way that they will not affect the rest of the body. The following are types of local therapy which are used for breast cancer treatment:

Surgery for Breast Cancer

A lot of women with breast cancer undergo some type of surgery as one way of their treatment. We have a lot of types of breast surgery which is done for different reasons and also depending on different situations. For instance it may be done for:

• Breast reconstruction whereby it’s done to restore the shape of the breast after removing the cancer.
• Mastectomy which is also conserving breast surgery which is used to remove much cancer as possible.
• Also in the finding out if cancer has reached the lymph nodes which are under the arms.
• Lastly for relieving advanced cancer symptoms.

The doctor may choose a specified operation based on the features of your breast cancer and your medical background or you may decide on which type to have personally which is very much important for the doctor to
know your opinions which will help in making the right choice.

Radiation Therapies

A lot of women with breast cancer need radiation in addition to many other types of treatment. Radiation need also depends on the type of surgery you underwent before whether your cancer has reached the lymph nodes or somewhere else allover the body and mostly depending on the age.

Radiation therapy having a high-energy rays treatment like x-rays or some particles used to destroy cancer cells. The main types used in breast cancer treatment in radiation therapy are:

• External beam radiation whereby in this type of radiation comes directly from a machine which is outside the body.
• Internal radiation whereby in this case, a radioactive source is inserted in your body for some short period of time.

Secondly Systemic Treatments

The drugs which are used in the treatment of breast cancer are referred to systemic therapies because they are capable of reaching cancer cells allover the body. They can be applied orally or injected directly into the veins. The following are types of drug treatment which are used for the treatment of breast cancer:

Chemotherapy

It is the treatment with cancer-killing drugs which may have been injected into the blood streams or given orally. The drugs travel all through the veins to reach the cancer cells allover the body. At specific occasions, it may be applied directly to the spinal fluid surrounding the spinal cord and the brain.

Hormone Therapies

In this form of systemic therapy meaning that it reaches cancer cells allover the body not only in the breast. It is advisable for women having hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, not forgetting that it does not help those with hormone receptor-negative tumors.

Targeted Therapies

Targeted drugs are used to block the growth and spread of cancer cells whereby these drugs differently work compared with chemotherapy drugs which attack all the quickly growing cells including cancer cells. Targeted drugs can work even if chemo drugs have failed to which helps other types of treatment to do better. They also have different side effects than that of chemo.

A lot of women always use more than one type of treatment for their breast cancer. For more information regarding this and other more concerns especially if are breast implants safe, please click on the link.