Breast Cancer Treatment
One out of every eight women in the US is diagnosed with breast cancer every year. As the number of breast cancer patients increases year after year, identification methods and treatments are beginning to advance. When women get older, their chances of developing breast cancer increases. In fact, 80% of all breast cancer patients are women ages 50 and up. The tumor is discovered through either mammography or self-breast examinations. Through these methods, doctors are able to discover the tumor and decide on what treatment is right for each patient. When it comes to treating breast cancer there are multiple treatment options; the type and severity of the cancer help the doctor decide the optimal treatment plan for each
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All types of cancer are ranked in a similar way, depending on how aggressive or large ones cancer is depends on that ranking. The different types of cancers are put into stages zero through four, zero being a tiny lump and four being highly sever (Breast Cancer 10). Doctors will also use different terms to describe their patients cancer, this creates an easier way to keep track of the tumors activity and decide on treatment. The words benign, malignant, and metastatic are commonly used. If a mass is benign then it is not harmful and does not contain any cancer cells. These masses are usually classified as grows or cysts rather than tumors, and they do not cause any problems unless they are near the brain or brain stem (Breast Cancer 87). Oncologists will use the term malignant as a description if the mass that is detected is cancerous and can cause harm to the patient (Breast Cancer 92). Tumors are not only classified as benign or malignant because these classifications are too broad. Oncologists need a better idea of what the tumor is like rather than cancerous or not cancerous, which is why they use the term metastatic. If a tumor is metastatic or has metastasized, then it has spread throughout the infected patients body (Treatment 17). Tumors like this are extremely dangerous because they have the ability to spread into the lymph nodes that …show more content…
The doctors will look into your and your family’s medical history, and factor in your age to help decide what treatment is best (Breast Cancer 4). Other factors that will play a role in the decision include the size and location of the lump, the stage of the cancer, and how your body may react to the medications (MedlinePlus 41). There are multiple treatment options from medications to minor surgeries to the use of harsh chemicals to control the cancer. Oncologists do their best to create the best personalized plan for each patient's situation. Knowing the stage of the cancer is very helpful in deciding a treatment plan, usually if a patient has stage zero they will only receive a mastectomy or lumpectomy because of how minor the cancer is. Stage one and two patients have a little more of an advanced cancer and it is usually recommended for them to have a mastectomy with additional removal of lymph nodes or lumpectomy followed by chemotherapy or radiation. For stage three patients, surgery is the only option and it is always followed by chemotherapy or hormonal therapy (MedlinePlus 50). At this point the cancer is advanced and it is important to contain it and prevent growth. When a patient has stage four cancer it is very difficult to completely clear the body of the cancer, but with the combination of the different surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation the cancer
Breast cancer is most commonly diagnosed in Stage I and Stage II, where the size of the tumor is less than five centimeters in diameter. In these situations, surgery is often the second treatment option after chemotherapy and radiation therapy, both of which are used to shrink the tumor to a manageable size first. If the patient chooses to, the ...
In clinical practice today the population is increasing in the number of elderly patients, as is the occurrence of breast cancer in women 60 years of age and older. According to Tang et al. (2011) the occurrence of breast cancer in women 65 years old and older is greater than “400 cases per 100, 000 women” (p. 3). The appropriate treatment options for the elderly are not as standard as those for a younger generation related to the effects the aging process has on the body. Secondary conditions such as congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes mellitus (DM), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and the effects of treatment on functionality are also considered when deciding treatment as well as polypharmacy with the elderly patients. According to Jones, Leak, Muss (2012) treatment options of elderly breast cancer patients requires determine if cancer is the primary illness related to the existing co-illnesses impact on breast cancer and survival rate.
Breast cancer is the top cancer in women both in the developed and the developing countries [133] and it is one of the major reasons for the increase in mortality among middle aged women especially in developed countries [58]. If it is detected and diagnosed in early stages of development, it will increase the possibility of successful treatment and chances for complete recovery of the patient. Mammography screening programs have reduced mortality rates by 30-70% [111]. In mammography images, ...
About 12% of women in the United States will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, more than any other type of cancer (www.breastcancer.org, 2015). Many people lack the knowledge of how breast cancer is developed. Some people think they will not get cancer because they do not smoke cigarettes, but this is not the only cause of cancer developing in the breast. Anyone can get cancer. Everyone is potentially at risk for developing some form of Cancer (American Cancer Society, 2015).
In life we come across many struggles and hardships. Some have more struggles then others but we all have them. Breast cancer could be one of those struggles whether male or female. Breast cancer is not just something that a woman can get like most people believe. Anyone can get it. In this essay you will about what breast cancer is, some symptoms, how it is treated, and my personal experience with it. Most people do not know what breast cancer is they just know that it is cancer in the breast.
There are many different approaches for management of breast cancer and treatment options that patients may select in collaboration with health care providers. Breast cancer is a complex disease that presents in many different types, with specific biological features unique to each patient. Invasive cancers are classified based on tumor type and histological grade, which is of utmost importance when deciding the course of treatment. Contemporary advances in breast cancer treatments have been made, especially in chemotherapy, hormone and biological therapies. Treatment can be a combination of local treatments, systemic treatments, and in some cases, new targeted treatments (Watts, 2013).
...therapy. Surgery entails partial mastectomy, full mastectomy and a radical mastectomy. Woman of course want to be able to keep their breast in tact but in some cases it is necessary to emoted part of the breast or the whole breast. Partial mastectomy only removes part of the affected breast depending on how big the tumor is and the location in which it is placed. A full mestetocomy is where the full breast is removed along with other tissues nearby if necessary which is known as radical mastectomy. Many times women go through numerous reconstructive surgeries to reshape their breast attempting to construct them as closely as possible to their original breast. Chemotherapy is a universal treetment for every stage of breast cancer whether doctors are using pre surgery to help shrink tumors or post surgery to ensure that cancer cells do not show their ugly face again.
Breast cancer is a disease that is frightening and can be harmful to many people, however as more time passes more is known. The thirty percent decrease in death due to breast cancer is tremendous and it is just a start. By understanding the prevention, treatment, symptoms breast cancer is a disease that can be beat.
There are different types of stages of breast cancer. Staging tells how far the cancer has spread within the body, staging is determined after breast cancer has been diagnosed and stages from 0 to 4 depending on how far its spread. Stage 0 cancer cells are only found in one location, Stage I cancer cells have left the milk ducts but haven’t reached the lymph nodes, Stage II cancer increases in size and has reached the armpit lymph nodes, Stage III cancer has spread to the cervical lymph nodes or tissue around the breast, Stage IV cancer has spread to other organs. Treatments are Herceptin witch cause cells to die, Kadcyla a cell killing drug let into the cancer cells, Tykerb and Perjeta. All these treatments have side effects.
In India, 144,937 women were newly detected with breast cancer and 70,218 women died of breast cancer in 2012. For every 2 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, one lady is dying of it. Incidence of breast cancer has also increased from 25.9% in the year of 2008 to 27% in 2012.In the year 2012, there were about 2, 32,000 breast cancer cases reported in the US, whereas in India, 1,45,000 new cases were diagnosed. This implies that, though, because of India's population, the percentage of total women affected seems less, the breast cancer burden in India has almost reached about 2/3rds of that of the US and is steadily rising. For the years 2015, there will be an estimated 1, 55,000 new cases of breast cancer and about 76000 women in India are expected to die of the disease.
There are two different staging systems that are used with breast cancer. The first, more conventional way, is expressed on a number scale of 0 to IV. The characteristics that determine where your breast cancer would fall include the size of the cancer or tumor, if the cancer has spread to the neighboring lymph nodes, whether the cancer is considered invasive or non-invasive and whether the cancer has spread to more parts of the body besides the breast. Correctly putting your cancer into the right stage is vital due to the difference in treatments with the stages. Starting with Stage 0, is for cancers that are non-invasive. “In stage 0, there is no evidence of cancer cells or non-cancerous abnormal cells breaking out of the part of the breast
First, after your mammogram results come back, your doctor will determine the course of treatment if a malignant tumor was discovered. Generally, if the tumor is small enough, it will be removed without the removal of the entire breast tissue. However, if the tumor has spread throughout the tissue, a mastectomy will be done. A mastectomy is the removal of the breast tissue. In this day and age, with the advancements in cancer research and treatment, this procedure can be avoided with early protection.
This sheet gives you information about how to care for yourself during the period of time right after you deliver your baby up to 6 weeks after delivery (postpartum period). Your health care provider may also give you more specific instructions. If you have problems or questions, contact your health care provider.
Breast Cancer As defined by Majure, breast cancer is an “uncontrolled growth of abnormal breast cells” (Majure: 110). It is also one of the cancers that women fear the most. Not only do women get diagnosed with breast cancer, men do too. However, it isn't as bad, or as common, in men as it is in women, so doctors don’t recommend screening for men.
It has three subcategories known as IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. Stage IIIA is described as invasive. In this stage it is considered advanced, which is harder to fight. In this subcategory the cancer is present in up to nine lymph nodes. It forms a chain that runs from the underarm to the collarbone. In another instance the cancer has spread or enlarged the lymph nodes, it would be deep in the breast. Stage IIIB is invasive breast cancer that is a tumor that has spread to the chest wall or the skin around the breast. Stage IIIC described as invasive that has cancer spread to more than ten lymph nodes (Breast Cancer, n.d.). Treatment for locally advanced breast cancer usually begins with neoadjuvant (before surgery) therapy. Neoadjuvant therapy helps shrink the tumor(s) in the breast and lymph nodes so that surgery can better remove all of the cancer (Ww5.komen.org,