Your medical team will make treatment recommendations based on the stage of cancer. Standard treatment options may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. If you have been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ or lobular carcinoma in situ, their stadium is the lowest and the car, you should be easier. For DCIS, your options may include conservative surgery or mastectomy with or without radiation and hormone therapy.
CLIS treatment options are a little different. They include the observation to determine the changes, hormone therapy to prevent the development of cancer, or bilateral prophylactic (preventive) mastectomies.
Things get complicated when the cancer has spread beyond the ducts or lobes / lobules. Once your cancer has been staged, you can visit rel = "nofollow" href = "http://www.cancer.gov"> http://www.cancer.gov to determine your treatment options. Usually are the following: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or hormone therapy. For IBC, treatment options are similar to other types of breast cancer, but always include chemotherapy, because to their aggressiveness.
or Surgery: Breast surgery can be a lumpectomy, which removes the tumor, or partial or modified radical mastectomy. With a lumpectomy, usually followed by radiation. In this way, you have to keep your heart and studies have shown no difference in survival rates between the lumpectomy / Radiation and mastectomy.
Note: Not too long ago, is used to perform a radical mastectomy in the chest, all the lymph nodes, and cut away the underlying muscles. Fortunately, medicine has discovered that it is not necessary. Now, a modified radical or partial mastectomy is performed, where removed either of the breast tissue or the entire breast, and possibly some of the lymph nodes. In general, a mastectomy is not as bad surgery, although each is different. I found both of mine to be quite easy, but you wake up to the drainage pipe, which is normally at least for a week.
Or chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is defined by Wikipedia as "the use of chemicals to treat the disease. In its modern usage, refers mainly to drugs cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer. "This can be a frightening prospect for anyone. We've all heard horror stories about chemotherapy can be very debilitating. However, much progress has been made in the management of chemotherapy side effects, to the point that, once they have the tools management right, you can still enjoy the activities they usually do. Chemo is a means to treat their systemic cancer and is often recommended for those whose tumor is larger than a certain size and / or the cancer has spread to lymph nodes. The idea is that if your cancer has had the opportunity to access rest of your body, your treatment should be systematic as well.
or radiation: Radiation therapy is usually a local treatment option, which are divided cells are damaged quickly. Cancer cells are dividing very quickly, so that radiation is an effective option. Usually, radiation therapy runs for approximately six weeks, five days a week. Is very much like to stay still for a x-ray, only instead of take a second or two, takes a couple of minutes. It can cause fatigue, towards the end and before, and may cause a sunburn on your skin.
or hormone therapy: Many breast cancers are hormone-dependent. In these cancers, there are receptors in the tumor that can be filled with estrogen. The idea is that when estrogen is filled with these receptors, making the tumor grow. This is called estrogen receptor positive (ER). These cancers respond well to hormone therapy and hormone therapy drugs that are recommended for you based on your menopausal status. These drugs are in pill form and taken once a day. The most popular of these drugs, pre-menopausal women, tamoxifen is and, for post-menopausal women Femara or Arimidex. There is new evidence to suggest that taking Femara after tamoxifen for five years, survival rates increases.
or Immunotherapy: There is a fourth modality of treatment on the horizon and that called immunotherapy. This is to get your immune system to fight your cancer and there, and will be, a lot of research done in this area.
Melissa Buhmeyer is a breast cancer survivor and has been so for seven years. She is also the founder of [http://www.breastcancer-treatment.us], a site focusing on breast cancer treatment [http://www.breastcancer-treatment.us] options, news, articles, and survivor experiences.
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