Treating Breast Cancer

Treatment for breast cancer will depend on the stage of the disease. Be sure to talk to your doctor about your treatment options. [10]

• Surgery — Most women with breast cancer will have some type of surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible. Depending on the size of the tumor and how it has spread, the breast may need to be removed completely. [28]
• Chemotherapy — With this type of breast cancer treatment, drugs are given by vein or mouth to help destroy breast cancer cells or stop them from growing. The drugs enter the bloodstream and are useful in treating cancer that has spread to distant organs. [28]
• Adjuvant therapy — Even in the early stages of breast cancer, doctors believe that cancer cells can break away from the main tumor and spread through the body. This can cause new tumors in other organs or in the bones. These cells may not cause symptoms or show up or be noticed on an x-ray or during a physical exam. Therefore, doctors may recommend chemotherapy treatment following surgery as a way to help kill these hidden cells. This use of chemotherapy is known as adjuvant therapy. [28]
• Radiation therapy — Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays (such as x-rays) to kill or shrink cancer cells. Sometimes, the radiation comes from outside the body and is called external radiation. Other times, radioactive materials are placed directly in the tumor. This is known as brachytherapy. [28]
• Hormone therapy — Estrogen is a hormone that promotes the growth of breast cancer cells in some women. Some drugs can be used to block the effect of estrogen. Others, known as aromatase inhibitors (AIs), actually stop the body from making estrogen. AIs only work for women who are past menopause and whose cancers are hormone-positive. [28]

Treatments for HER2-positive breast cancer

HER2 stands for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. HER2 helps control how normal cells grow, divide, and repair themselves. Each healthy breast cell contains 2 copies of the HER2 gene. If a cell has too many copies of the HER2 gene, it can lead to too much HER2 protein. This additional protein may play an important role in turning a normal cell into a more aggressive cancer cell. About 25% of breast cancers have too much of this protein. It also tends to result in a more aggressive cancer. [25]

Because HER2-positive breast cancers don’t seem to respond as well to standard adjuvant therapy as HER2-negative cancers, women with HER2-positive cancers have a higher risk of their cancer returning. [21]

For more information about treatment options, visit the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Web site and the National Cancer Institute Web site.

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