Which Breast Cancer Treatment Should You Choose?

That is a decision best made by your doctor(s), or specialist, and you. Surgery is often part of the breast cancer treatment and there are other treatments to kill the cancer.

Breast cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy or hormonal therapy, each of these can be very helpful on it's own, and is even better when used in combination with other cancer treatments, each however, as your doctor(s) will explain, have downsides.

Any, or a combination, of these treatments are generally used along with surgery.

* Chemotherapy

One breast cancer treatment is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves the treatment of cancer with drugs that kill the cancer cells or stop them from growing.

Most chemotherapy medications are intravenously administered, although occasionally chemotherapy comes in forms of pill.

Chemotherapy is a harsh cancer treatment and patients generally fell extremely fatigued, a complete loss of energy, have nausea, severe headaches, vomiting, loss of hair and loss of appetite, however it has been proved to be very effective in fighting cancer.

Chemotherapy is usually administered by having a few days, up to a week, of intensive treatment followed by a week off, allowing the bodies to rest and recover, before the next session.

Most patients with breast cancer have two to four cycles of chemotherapy to start with before tests are performed to see what effects it has had on the cancer.

The common side effects, in part mentioned earlier, are loss of hair, loss of appetite, fatigue, vomiting and low blood cell count making the patient more susceptible to infections, feeling sick or tired. Many patients also notice that they bleed more than usual, especially from gums and small scrapes and sores etc., as the chemotherapy kills the white blood cells, in addition to the cancer, and the body loses it's natural defenses.

Also, chemotherapy, as opposed to radiation, in that it treats the whole body with the potential of finding other tumor cells that have migrated from the breast and surrounding area.

* Radiation

Radiation therapy uses powerful gamma rays (x-rays) to aggressively treat the specific spot of the cancer.

Radiation therapy is generally administered after surgery, as it will kill any cancer cells that have not been not taken, or missed, out during the surgery.

Radiation therapy is not used as a cancer treatment on its own, however it is one of the most popular post-surgery methods of breast conserving therapy (BCT) and has a high chance of stopping the cancer from recurring.

Just as for chemotherapy there are some downsides to radiation therapy. In order to killing the cancer cells that might have formed (or remained) after the surgery, the x-rays will also damage some of the healthy tissue too.

The good news is that the healthy tissue will eventually repair themselves. Other side effects include a slight irritation and reddening of the skin, mild swellings in the treatment area, muscle stiffness and changes in size of the treated breast.

* Hormonal Therapy

Hormonal treatments are usually combined with chemotherapy with the purpose of balancing the estrogen levels of a woman, in order to either block estrogen from being received by the breast cancer cells or to lower the overall amount of the hormone in the system.

In some breast cancer cases, a woman’s natural hormones are suppressed with drugs whereas other patients find benefits by adding hormones. Tamoxifen for instance is currently the most commonly prescribed effective hormone treatment. It can be used for treating breast cancer and also in the prevention of breast cancer. Tamoxifen has few side effects and can considerably improve the life span of those women who have advanced cases of breast cancer.

A further treatment, Fulvestrant has recently been approved in the USA. It is planned that it will be used for treating metastasism of breast cancer in women who have been through the menopause. It is given following antiestrogen therapy.

Another treatment known as monoclonal is antibodies that are antagonistic against the proteins which are in or around cancer cells. They recognize an invader such as a cancer cell and attack it. This antibody therapy is currently being investigated and holds out a lot of hope for breast cancer sufferers.

The potential side effects of any treatment or surgery should be discussed at length with your health care provider before beginning each different treatment.

Excessive alcohol intake and obesity following menopause can increase the risk of developing breast cancer although this increase is slight. Those women who are physically active have a lower risk.

More and more women who are at a high risk of developing breast cancer are having preventative or prophylactic mastectomies to avoid them developing breast cancer.

The main risk factors for women to develop breast are age, sex and genetics. Women can do nothing about these risks so regular screen is recommended to prevent death caused by breast cancer.

Women should undertake regular screening including self examination, mammography and clinical breast examinations.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BREAST CANCER

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