When you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you wonder what treatment options are available and how they work. First of all, there are many different factors that play a role so that treatment varies from person to person. What stage does the tumor have, the persons age and menopausal status are just a few of the factors that have influence on the treatment decision.
A good friend of mine has just successfully completed her treatment therapy but you can never know how long the success will last. You may have to live with the fear for the rest of your life that the cancer will come back one day. There is no certainty.
The treatment she went under started with a lumpectomy. This simply means that the tumor was removed by surgery. In the next step the lymph nodes close to the tumor were removed. This has to be done because the tumor often likes to spread to the lymph nodes or already has done so. Removing the nodes reduces the risk of a new cancer.
After this surgery the chemotherapy had started. She had more than ten weeks of chemotherapy and thereafter she got radiation therapy. The chemo can take much longer depending n the success. Another friend had the chemo for almost nine months.
If you go with the traditional treatment options for breast cancer you will always have a procedure like that, no matter what type of breast cancer was detected in you. There usually will be a surgery followed by chemo and radiation.
This sounds like a pretty long therapy but the doctors want to make sure that every cancer cell has been destroyed. Unfortunately this treatment has also some serious side effects. In addition, you may also have to take drugs after the treatment for several weeks, like Tamoxifen.
Sometimes a mastectomy is necessary, that means a total or partial removal of the breast. You have the choice to have a reconstruction surgery after that or not, it is your choice and does not have impact on your breast cancer.
Article DirectoryLabels: Breast Cancer, Treatment |
