Cancer On Internet

The treatments for patients with breast cancer are varied and can differ based on cost, success rate, and viability. However, no one treatment is suitable for all patients and sometimes even a combination of one or two types of therapy is necessary, and patients must consider several things before choosing the proper treatment, these things consist of age of the patient, the type of the cancer, the severity and stage, menopausal condition, and whether the tumor has hormone receptors or not.

Treatments for breast cancer can either be systemic or local, with local treatments being preferred because they control or eliminate cancer cells more effectively in specific organs. The local treatments are made up of:

A. Surgery, which is either masectomy or lumpectomy, which is also called breast conserving therapy or partial masectomy, because there is no lymph node removal involved.

B. Radiation therapy, which can be more costly and risky but will have a much higher overall success rate.

Systematic treatments, on the other hand, are used to eliminate all types of cancer cells all over the body, but can also be used to treat breast cancer. Systematic treatments consist of chemotherapy, which uses drugs to control or remove cancer cells, and Hormone therapy, which uses drugs to control reproduction of hormones that promote the enlargement of breast cancer cells, such as estrogen.

At the end of the day, it is important for you to talk to your health care provider to gain more knowledge and to get specific advice in relation to the treatments that are available and applicable to your case. Do not be afraid to take into account second opinion from other physicians.