What are the different types of breast cancer treatments?

What are the different types of breast cancer treatments?

Advances in medicine have led to the discovery and improvement of several treatment options for breast cancer. The therapies suit the type and stage of the tumour and the patient’s lifestyle, so talking to your doctor and making decisions together is a very important step!

Therapy Options: Local and Systemic

The therapeutic approach adopted by the medical team takes into account several personal factors of the patient, such as age, lifestyle, general clinical status, type and stage of breast cancer. But it is worth remembering that one thing is the same for all cases: the importance of early diagnosis.

We can classify the treatment of breast cancer into two therapeutic options: Local and Systemic.

• Local therapy:  In this case, surgical and radiotherapy methods are adopted to contain and treat the tumour in isolation, without affecting the rest of the body.
  • Surgery: It is the oldest treatment modality. When the tumour is at an early stage and in favourable conditions for removal, it is the most effective option;
  • Radiotherapy: makes use of ionizing radiation and is widely used in localized tumours, where there is no need to remove part of the breast, or in tumours that cannot be completely removed by surgery. Radiotherapy is also applied in cases where the risk of cancer recurrence is increased.
• Systemic Therapy:  This type of treatment makes use of drugs administered orally or applied directly into the bloodstream and act on cancer cells.
  • Chemotherapy: The purpose of chemotherapy is to eliminate, control and inhibit the growth of diseased cells. In this therapy, oral and/or intravenous medications are used;
  • Hormone Therapy: prevents the action of hormones on breast cancer cells;
  • Targeted therapy (monoclonal antibodies): These are relatively new anticancer drugs that target a specific protein or cell division mechanism present, preferably, in tumour cells.