Breast cancer treatment has progressed at a quick pace in recent years, and more advances are coming out all the time. This is great news for improving the health and survival odds for women with breast cancer. But it also means a confusing array of treatment options and often many months—and even years—of treatment.
After surgery, you might have months of chemotherapy, radiation treatment, or both. These may be followed by years...
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Types of Complementary Techniques for Breast cancer
There are literally hundreds of complementary treatments. While some treatments have been studied in breast cancer patients, others have not. We have noted which treatments have and have not been studied in breast cancer patients. ALWAYS check with your doctor before beginning any complementary treatment.
Although not every complementary technique is listed here, we've included information about the most widely used complementary...
Chemotherapy for Breast cancer
Chemotherapy is a systemic therapy; this means it affects the whole body by going through the bloodstream. The purpose of chemotherapy and other systemic treatments is to get rid of any cancer cells that may have spread from where the cancer started to another part of the body.
Chemotherapy is effective against cancer cells because the drugs love to interfere with rapidly dividing cells. The side effects of chemotherapy come...
Hormonal Therapy for breast cancer
Hormonal therapy is a very effective treatment against breast cancer that is hormone-receptor-positive. Find out if you should be tested to see if you need other therapies, as well. Sometimes called "anti-estrogen therapy," hormonal therapy blocks the ability of the hormone estrogen to turn on and stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells.
For years, tamoxifen was the hormonal medicine of choice for all women with hormone-receptor-positive...
Targeted Breast cancer Therapies
Targeted cancer therapies are cancer treatments that target specific characteristics of cancer cells, such as a protein, an enzyme, or the formation of new blood vessels. Targeted therapies don't harm normal, healthy cells. Most targeted therapies are antibodies that work like the antibodies made by the immune system. So targeted therapies are also called immune targeted therapies. In this way, targeted therapies are very different...
The role of surgery in breast cancer treatment
For well over a century, surgery has been the first line of attack against breast cancer. But things have changed a lot in recent years. Today, the goal is precise, targeted surgery that aims to preserve as much of the healthy breast and surrounding areas as possible. Even mastectomy (breast removal) is a more refined, less drastic option than it was a generation ago.
The most important of these deciding factors are: the stage...
Treatment of breast cancer
In recent years, there's been an explosion of life-saving treatment advances against breast cancer, bringing new hope and excitement. Instead of only one or two options, today there's an overwhelming menu of treatment choices that fight the complex mix of cells in each individual cancer. The decisions—surgery, then perhaps radiation, hormonal (anti-estrogen) therapy, and/or chemotherapy—can feel overwhelming.
breastcancer.org...
Stages of Breast Cancer
The purpose of the staging system is to help organize the different factors and some of the personality features of the cancer into categories, in order to:
* best understand your prognosis (the most likely outcome of the disease)
* guide treatment decisions, since clinical studies of breast cancer treatments that you and your doctor will...
How Breast Cancer Happens
Breast profile:
A Ducts
B Lobules
C Dilated section of duct to hold milk
D Nipple
E Fat
F Pectoralis major muscle
G Chest wall/rib cage
Enlargement
A Normal duct cells
B Basement membrane
C Lumen (center of duct)
The breast is a gland designed to make milk. The lobules in the breast make the milk, which then drains through the ducts...
Signs, Symptoms & Diagnosis of Breast cancer
SymptomsEarly breast cancer usually does not cause pain. In fact, when breast cancer first develops, there may be no symptoms at all. But as the cancer grows, it can cause changes that women should watch for: * A lump or thickening in or near the breast or in the underarm area. * A change in the size or shape of the breast. * A discharge...
