The treatment of breast cancer nowadays involves several professionals, surgeon, oncologist and radiotherapist, all of them in a coordinated way design the treatment strategy in each case, because there is not a “unique” breast cancer, each patient needs a different treatment, it is not the same for a 40 year old woman than for an 85 year old woman, it is not the same for a woman with a small breast as with a large breast, it is not the same depending on the location of the tumor in the breast, it is not the same for someone who has no adenopathies as for women with a positive clinical axilla, the treatment of a woman 3 years ago is not the same as the one being performed now, it is not the same depending on the biological subtype of the tumor, family history, etc…. . And to take all these factors into account, you need an expert in breast pathology, up-to-date, knowledgeable of the latest international publications, and the latest breast cancer treatment guidelines.
Surgery
It is usually the first treatment for breast cancer. The most commonly performed surgery is breast-conserving surgery with immediate reconstruction of the remaining breast (oncoplasty) and sentinel lymph node biopsy. The tendency in our Center is to conserve the patient’s breast in the vast majority of cases, a very small percentage will require removal of the entire breast. And what is more important, we reduce to the maximum the performance of axillary lymphadenectomy, which is performed in only 26% of patients with breast cancer, a figure that in the last two years we have lowered to 10.8% if the patient is diagnosed through quality screening programs such as the one we propose in our center.
Radiotherapy
It consists of applying radiation with the intention of destroying the tumor cells that may remain after surgery. It is always applied if a conservative treatment has been performed. Sometimes radiotherapy is used after mastectomy.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is part of the systemic treatment, since drugs are applied through the blood and distributed throughout the body. These drugs have the ability to destroy cells that multiply very fast (tumor cells), they can also affect normal cells, but less, so side effects may appear, which are usually temporary and tolerated. It is applied in sessions, the duration and type of drug depend on the stage, histological type of tumor and the immunohistochemistry of the tumor.
Hormonal treatment
Certain types of breast tumors have cells with receptors for hormones that enhance their growth or their appearance, so we have drugs that block these receptors or prevent these hormones from being manufactured in the body, thus preventing the growth of tumor cells or their reappearance.