Surgery is usually the first line of attack against breast cancer. Surgery, then perhaps radiation, hormonal (anti-estrogen) therapy, and/or chemotherapy. Decisions about surgery depend on many factors – you and your doctor will determine the kind of surgery that’s most appropriate for you based on the stage of the cancer, the personality of the cancer, and what is acceptable to you for your Treatment For Breast Cancer.
You will need to ask yourself do you want to keep your breast? If it’s important to you to keep your breast, you may decide to have lumpectomy with radiation instead of mastectomy. Certain circumstances, people with breast cancer have the opportunity to choose between total removal of a breast (mastectomy) and breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) followed by radiation. Lumpectomy followed by radiation is likely to be equally as effective as mastectomy for people with only one site of cancer in the breast and a tumor that is under 4 centimeters.
Taking into account tumor size, stage, and other characteristics, as well as patient preference, treatment may involve lumpectomy (surgical removal of the tumor with clear margins) or mastectomy (surgical removal of the breast).
Breast Cancer Treatments
Removal of some of the axillary (underarm) lymph nodes is also recommended to obtain accurate information on stage of disease. Treatment For Breast Cancer may also involve radiation therapy, chemotherapy (before or after surgery), hormone therapy (tamoxifen, raloxifene, aromatase inhibitors), or targeted biologic therapy.
Women with early-stage disease whose cancer tests positive for estrogen receptors benefit from treatment with hormone therapy for 5 years following diagnosis; recent studies suggest that risk of breast cancer recurrence is further reduced when hormone therapy is followed by treatment with an aromatase inhibitor.
Lumpectomy is surgery in which only the tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed.
Mastectomy is surgery to remove a breast. The surgeon removes all of the breast tissue — the lobules, ducts, fatty tissue and skin, including the nipple and areola. Or mastectomy can be radical, meaning the underlying muscle of the chest wall is removed along with surrounding lymph nodes in the armpit.
Lymph Node Removal – If you have invasive breast cancer, your surgeon will probably remove some of the lymph nodes under your arm during your lumpectomy or mastectomy. Your surgeon determines which lymph node near your breast tumor receives the lymph drainage from your cancer. This lymph node is removed and tested for breast cancer cells. If no cancer is found, the chance of finding cancer in any of the remaining nodes is small and no other nodes need to be removed.
Removing several lymph nodes (axillary lymph node dissection). If cancer is found in the sentinel node, then your surgeon removes additional lymph nodes in your armpit. Knowing if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes helps determine the best course of treatment, including whether you’ll need chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
