Breast Cancer Treatment
Treatment will aim to remove the cancer and reduce the risk of the disease returning in the future.
There are many ways to treat breast cancer but the overall goal is to remove the cancer from the breast and reduce the risk of the disease returning in the future.
The treatment of breast cancer is always tailored to an individual patient and often involves several different therapeutic approaches.
Local Treatment
The treatment of breast cancer is always tailored to an individual patient and often involves several different therapeutic approaches.
Local treatment involves surgery to remove all identifiable cancer from the breast and draining axillary lymph nodes and radiotherapy to treat any microscopic cancer cells that may be left in the breast/ chest wall after the operation. Based on the available evidence, the 10-year risk of breast recurrence in the chest wall after mastectomy is between 2-9%. This is very similar to the 10-year risk of cancer recurrence in a breast treated with a lumpectomy/ wide-local excision and radiotherapy (4-7%). Radiotherapy after mastectomy is advised in certain circumstances.
Systemic therapy involves giving medication as a tablet or intravenously so that the treatment is carried to every part of the body and includes hormone therapy, chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody therapy.
Systemic Therapy
Systemic therapy involves giving medication as a tablet or intravenously so that the treatment is carried to every part of the body and includes hormone therapy, chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody therapy.
Types of Treatment
Breast Cancer Surveillance and Wellbeing
All women undergoing active treatment for breast cancer are regularly seen in clinic. We ensure that they are coping with the therapy and can freely discuss any concerns that they may have. After treatment, mammograms are performed every year until the age of 50 or for 5 years and thereafter every 2 to 3 years. A routine physical check-up is scheduled every year but if in the interim a woman has any new worries we would see her as soon as possible.
The physical examination of the breasts is important but mammograms have been shown to be the most reliable way to identify new cancerous changes in the breasts. The treatment for breast cancer often changes the way the breast feels so we teach women how to remain breast aware after surgery.