Breast cancer treatment as Mastectomy and breast-conserving therapy are the most known local treatments for breast cancer. Also Radiation is an efficient therapy for destroying cancer cells.
Factors affecting breast cancer treatment
Your cancer care team will keep in touch with your treatment options with you once you have been diagnosed with breast cancer. It is crucial to think about available choices for breast cancer treatment. Weigh the advantages of each choice of therapy against the expected adverse side effects.
Treatments for breast cancer are evolving better with time, and people these days have far more choices than ever before.
Local therapies
Some therapies are local, meaning that affecting tumors without impacting the rest of the body.
To eradicate the tumor, some women will undergo some forms of surgery.
You will need other forms of therapy as well either before or after surgery or both depending on the type of breast cancer and how severe it is.
Local therapies include:
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Breast cancer surgery
As part of their recovery, most women with breast cancer have some form of surgery.
There are various forms of breast surgery depending on each case’s circumstances and the purposes of surgery. Surgery could be performed to:
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Remove as much as possible of cancer (breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy).
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Discover if cancer spreads to the lymph nodes under the arm.
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Restore the shape of the breast after cancer has been removed (breast reconstruction).
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Relieving advanced cancer symptoms
Two major forms of breast cancer removal surgery:
Breast-conserving surgery:
(Also known as lumpectomy, quadrantectomy, partial mastectomy, or segmental mastectomy) is a procedure in which only the cancer-containing portion of the breast is removed.
The aim is to eliminate cancer as well as some normal tissue surrounding it. The amount of breast removal depends, as well as other factors, on where and how large the tumor is.
Mastectomy:
Is a procedure in which the whole breast, including all the breast tissue and often other surrounding tissues, are removed. Several forms of mastectomies are available.
A double mastectomy can also be performed in some women, in which both breasts are removed.
The key benefit of breast-conserving surgery is that much of the breast is preserved by a woman, but she would still require radiation in most instances.
Women who have early-stage cancer mastectomy are less likely to require radiation.
Mastectomy may be a safer choice for certain women, due to the type of breast cancer, the large size of the tumor, prior radiation therapy, or some other factors.
Some women may worry that getting a less comprehensive procedure may increase their risk of returning to cancer.
Research that has tracked thousands of women for more than 20 years suggests that survival is the same as getting a mastectomy in people who are eligible for both forms of surgery when breast-conserving surgery is done with radiation.
Reconstruction of the breast following surgery
A breast implant, or tissue from another part of the patient's body, can be used by the surgeon.
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Breast cancer radiation therapy
Treatment with high-energy rays (or particles) that kill cancer cells is known as radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy is being used in some cases:
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To further minimize the risk that cancer will return to the same breast or surrounding lymph nodes after breast-conserving surgery.
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After a mastectomy, particularly if the cancer is larger than 5 cm (about 2 inches). If cancer is found in several lymph nodes or surgical margins i.e. skin or muscles.
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If cancer has migrated to other areas of the body.
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External beam radiation therapy:
For women with breast cancer, this is the most popular form of radiation therapy.
The radiation is concentrated by a machine outside the body in the region affected by cancer.
What areas require radiation depends on whether you have had a mastectomy or a breast-conserving procedure and whether cancer has entered nearby lymph nodes or not.
When can I start radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy doesn’t start until the surgery site has been healed, which often takes a month or longer.
It is also postponed until chemotherapy is completed if you are also receiving chemotherapy.
How can I prepare myself for radiation therapy?
You should be calm, it is painless. The radiation team will carefully identify the right angles to target the radiation beams and the right radiation dose.
To concentrate the radiation on the correct region, they can produce some ink marks or tiny tattoos on your skin.
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Brachytherapy
Another way of administering radiation therapy is brachytherapy, also known as internal radiation. A device containing radioactive seeds or pellets is inserted into the breast tissue for a brief period in the region where cancer has been removed, instead of focusing radiation beams from outside the body.
If you have undergone a mastectomy and none of the lymph nodes have had cancer, radiation will be offered to the entire chest wall, the mastectomy scar, and the areas of every surgical drain and that is known as chest wall radiation.
If cancer has been identified in the underarm lymph nodes, radiation can be administered to this area and that is known as lymph node radiation.
Our dewTreats for you today are about... breast cancer treatment that discusses surgical and radiation therapy. But we have more details, advice, and knowledge tips helping you, our princess, to fight bravely and win your battle. We support you more and more.
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