With the advent of new technologies and advancements in medical field, the treatment options for breast cancer have increased bringing new hopes for the patients. Once you suspect of having a breast cancer, you should undergo diagnostic procedures to confirm your suspicions. After getting diagnosed, you can plan for your treatment according to the reports.
How to Plan Your Treatment?
Planning your treatment is the most important step of getting started with the actual treatment of breast cancer. Here are the 4 basic tips which you should consider to plan your treatment:
- The “Types of Treatment” available.
- The “Sequence of treatments” suitable to your condition.
- The “Treatment Options” which are most likely to work depending on the cancer stage.
- Finding enough time and scheduling your treatment.
Breast Cancer Treatment
There are various treatment options for breast cancer from which you and your doctor can decide to choose. Here is the list of them:
SURGERY: This option can be considered only after confirming the stage of breast cancer. There are three types of surgeries available to treat the condition.
Lumpectomy: This is also known as Tylectomy in which only a lump or a part of breast is removed which is cancerous. Usually it is performed in Benign tumors where there is no danger of cancer metastasizing. This technique is used in breast conservation where the breast remains intact.
Mastectomy: This technique of surgery is performed in a situation where there may be more than one lumps of tumors in the same breast or when there is a complex situation of the breast. Usually mastectomy is safer than lumpectomy as there are little chances of recurrence of the cancer.
Lymph Node Dissection: In this the lymph nodes, usually in the armpit region are removed by dissection. The technique used is Sentinel Lymph Node Dissection where the side effects after lymph node removal are fewer.
RADIATION THERAPY: This is also known as radiotherapy which is a targeted therapy (internal or external); destroying the only the cancerous cells in a localized area. This is proved to reduce risk of breast cancer recurrence by over 70%. Moreover the side effects are only confined to the localized area which is subjected to irradiation.
HORMONAL THERAPY: This therapy is only applicable to the patients with hormone-receptors-positive breast cancer. Since it is only in these patients the cancer grows due to increase in estrogen levels. So blocking the action of estrogens or lowering the amount of estrogens in breast cells would serve the purpose.
CHEMOTHERAPY: This is usually prescribed as an adjuvant therapy in combination with other therapies. It employs the use of drugs which kill the cancerous cells in body, irrespective of the location in the body. Chemotherapy can be used in both early-stages and advanced stages of breast cancer.
TARGETTED THERAPY: In this therapy, the factors causing the cancer (certain proteins) are targeted with Monoclonal antibodies (Mabs). This therapy has relatively fewer side effects when compared to chemotherapy.
