Treatment Options For Cancer Patients

Treatment Options For Cancer Patients – Breast cancer treatment is different for each patient, but the main goals are to eliminate the cancer and prevent the disease from coming back. The choice of treatment your doctor will discuss depends on the type of breast cancer; size; whether the cancer has spread throughout your body (stage); receptor properties such as estrogen, progesterone and HER2; menopausal status; other health conditions; and most importantly your personal preferences. Learning about treatment options with different options and the patient’s role in shared decision-making is ideal.

The standard of care for breast cancer continues to be surgery, whether it involves removing breast tissue, reconstructing the breast, or implanting a device such as a port-a-cath to provide easy access to the patient’s veins for prescribed treatment. Breast cancer surgery can be used alone or in combination with other treatments such as chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and radiation therapy. The surgeon is a member of the multidisciplinary breast team and will help decide the type of breast surgery (lumpectomy, mastectomy), immediate or delayed reconstruction (implantation or use of tissue from another area of ​​the patient’s body), or the use of preoperative chemotherapy. (neoadjuvant therapy).

Treatment Options For Cancer Patients

Breast surgery is performed by a surgeon specially skilled in breast surgery. Breast reconstruction is performed by a breast oncology surgeon or a plastic surgeon. Surgeons trained in both of these specialties are known as oncoplastic surgeons. Oncoplastic breast surgery improves cosmetic results by using reconstructive surgical techniques to shape the breast that remains after tissue removal or to form a new breast after excision of breast tissue. Many women use oncoplastic surgery to correct the unevenness between the breasts.

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When a surgeon says that all the cancer has been removed, the meaning of this statement may differ between the surgeon and the patient. The surgeon may have removed all the cancer visible on the mammogram or breast MRI, but the patient and family may interpret this as meaning that there is no longer any cancer in the body and no further treatment is needed. This interpretation may be true for a small number of very early, low-risk types of breast cancer, but you may still have cancer cells somewhere in your body. Importantly, patients should continue to follow up with other members of the interdisciplinary team to discuss any treatment to prevent the cancer from returning.

In a neoadjuvant approach (before surgery), chemotherapy may be given to shrink the cancer so that it can be removed with less extensive surgery. This method treats cancers that are too large to be removed surgically when first diagnosed and allows the medical oncologist to see how the cancer is responding to drugs. The goal is to reduce breast cancer and reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence. In addition, chemotherapy is given after surgery (called adjuvant therapy) to kill any cancer cells that are left behind or have spread and are not detected on imaging. The goal is to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence.

A medical oncologist will select, prescribe and order the administration of chemotherapy if this treatment is required. Think of the medical oncologist as the player who calls the plays, and the other players on the team are the surgeon, radiologist, radiation oncologist, and pathologist to make decisions about the best treatment options. A medical oncologist has a clear understanding of the risk of recurrence with a particular type of breast cancer, as well as the overall prognosis, and will share this with the patient as a team member in shared decision-making. If necessary, this doctor may also prescribe hormone therapy, biologically targeted therapy, or immunotherapy to treat breast cancer.Treatment Options For Cancer Patients .

Understanding Blood Cancers And Treatment Options

Hormone therapy is also called endocrine therapy. When breast cancer is diagnosed, the pathologist checks for hormone receptors called estrogen or progesterone. If receptors are detected, the cancer has a characteristic that can be defined as estrogen positive or progesterone positive (ER+; PR+). About 80% of breast cancers are positive and this group will be suitable for hormone therapy. Hormone-negative cancers lack hormone receptors and do not respond to hormone therapy. Estrogen and progesterone bind to hormone receptors and cause receptor activation and stimulate cell growth. Hormone therapy, prescribed by a medical oncologist, stops the growth of hormone-sensitive tumors by blocking the body’s ability to produce hormones or by interfering with the effect of hormones on breast cancer cells.

Hormone therapy for breast cancer should not be confused with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or menopausal hormone therapy—treatment with estrogen alone or in combination with progesterone to relieve menopausal symptoms. For this reason, when a woman taking HRT is diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer, she is usually told to stop treatment. There are 2 different types of therapy that produce opposite effects: hormone therapy for breast cancer blocks the growth of HR+ breast cancer, while HRT can promote the growth of HR+ breast cancer.

Treatment Options For Cancer Patients

Many patients also find that hormone therapy is less effective than chemotherapy, but it can be just as effective in some breast cancers. Both hormone therapy and chemotherapy are considered “systemic” treatments because they work throughout the body and through all body systems. Surgery and radiation therapy are considered “local” treatments because they focus on one body part.Treatment Options For Cancer Patients

Treatment Options

Biologically targeted therapy may also be called molecularly targeted drugs, molecularly targeted therapies, or precision medicine. Just as hormone therapy is used for breast cancer cells with a specific trait or trait, so is biologically targeted therapy. Again, the pathologist measures specific levels of the protein in the cancer cells and compares them to the levels in healthy cells. Overproduction of these proteins is more common in cancer cells, but not in healthy ones, and promotes large amounts of cell growth. The goal of targeted therapy is to fight and attack these proteins by blocking cancer cells’ ability to receive growth signals and stop their function. Targeted drugs work differently than chemotherapy drugs. Chemotherapy kills normal cells while killing cancer cells, causing side effects such as hair loss and low blood counts, while normal cells can survive targeted therapy. The most common abnormal protein in breast cancer is a growth-promoting protein called HER2, which is found in 20% of all breast cancers. Some drugs that target this protein are Herceptin, Perjeta, Kadcyla, Enhertu, Tykerb, and Nerlynx. Only breast cancer patients with high levels of this protein will be prescribed one of these drugs by a medical oncologist.

Treatment Options For Cancer Patients .

Normally, the immune system detects and destroys abnormal cells and prevents or slows the growth of cancer. Sometimes immune cells called lymphocytes are found infiltrating the tumor around the cancer, a sign that the immune system is reacting to something foreign to the body. Unfortunately, there are ways to prevent cancer cells from being destroyed by the immune system. Immune checkpoints are a normal part of the immune system. The immune response does not have to be strong enough to destroy healthy cells in the body, so there are immune checkpoints that are a normal part of the immune system. Breast cancer cells sometimes use these checkpoints to hide and bypass the immune system so that they are not destroyed. However, immunotherapy drugs can target these checkpoints and restore or reduce immune function. Tecentriq is used to treat breast cancer to help boost the immune system against shrinking or slow-growing breast cancer.

Radiation treatment is planned by a radiation oncologist together with women with breast cancer who need it. It may be given after a lumpectomy or mastectomy, or as a palliative treatment if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Two main types of radiation therapy are used to treat breast cancer: (1) external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), which is delivered externally and directed at the breast tissue, and (2) brachytherapy, in which a device is placed in the breast tissue in the area where the cancer is removed. With EBRT, the whole breast can be treated for about 6 weeks—once a day Monday through Friday—or it can be treated hypofractionated with larger doses given over 3 to 4 weeks. Some centers have used accelerated partial breast radiation, in which a larger dose of radiation is given to only part of the breast rather than the whole breast in a shorter time.Treatment Options For Cancer Patients .

Oral Cancer Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment Options

Radiation therapy will not cause the patient to become radioactive. The radiation will be delivered to the breast tissue within minutes. There is no lingering radiation when the treatment machine is turned off. If brachytherapy or internal radiation is received, the person will be radioactive while the material is implanted and may be isolated in a special room in the hospital.

Doctors associated with each treatment can discuss clinical trials where patients volunteer to test new ones

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