Breast Cancer

Description

Alternative Names

Medications

The most important advances in the cure of breast cancer have come through the use of drug therapy, also called systemic therapy. Surgery and radiation therapy are effective for treating tumors confined to the breast but not for cancer cells that have spread. In such cases, drug therapy is needed. Drugs works systemically. That is, they kill cancer cells throughout the body rather than just in the breast or nearby tissue.

Agents Used for Breast Cancer

Systemic treatments for breast cancer include the following:

• Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy employs drugs called cytotoxic agents. They are given orally or by injection that kill cancer cells throughout the body. It plays a role in a very wide range of breast cancer cases.
• Hormone Therapy. The goal of hormone therapy is to prevent estrogen from stimulating breast cancer cells. It is now recommended for women of any age whose breast cancers are hormone-receptor positive (either estrogen or progesterone), regardless of the size of the tumor and whether or not it has spread to the lymph nodes.

Considerations for Drug Therapies

Drug therapy, either hormonal agents or chemotherapies, may be used as follows:

• As primary therapy for patients for whom surgery or radiation therapy is not appropriate.
• With surgery, radiation or both (adjuvant therapy). Adjuvant therapy is particularly beneficial for women who have microscopic evidence of the spread of cancer at the time of diagnosis. The use of drug therapy is designed to kill these residual breast cancer cells before they have a chance to become clinically evident.
• Prior to local treatments (neoadjuvant therapy). The goal in such cases is usually to shrink locally advanced tumors (Stage III) to a size small enough for surgical or radiological therapy.

In metastatic cancer: Drugs are used in such cases not to cure but to improve quality of life and possibly prolong survival.