How We Treat Breast Cancer

Surgery is the most common way to treat breast cancer. In a lumpectomy, only the tumor is removed, and the rest of the breast is left intact. In a mastectomy, the entire breast is removed. Your doctor may also do surgery to see if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under your arm, which may require other types of treatment after surgery.

Learn more about cancer surgery.

Reconstructive surgery

After a mastectomy, surgery may be used to reconstruct your breast. This can be done using your own tissue or an implant.

This type of therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells. This treatment can be used to shrink a tumor before surgery. Or it may be used after surgery to kill cancer cells that may remain in the breast or chest area. Radiation may also be used to treat tumors in other areas of the body.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

This treatment uses powerful medicines to kill cancer cells all through the body. It may be used to shrink a tumor before surgery or to kill any cancer cells that remain after local treatments. Chemotherapy may also treat tumors that have grown in other places in the body. Breast cancer that has spread is usually treated with chemotherapy, sometimes in combination with hormone therapy.

Learn more about chemotherapy and infusion therapy options.

This treatment stops the growth of cancer cells that rely on certain hormones. Hormone therapy is done through medicines, such as tamoxifen, or removal of the ovaries, which make hormones. Hormone therapy may be used after surgery to decrease the chance of breast cancer coming back or a new cancer growing. It can also be used to treat cancer that has spread. It’s sometimes used with chemotherapy.

Targeted therapy is the use of medicines that target parts of cancer cells that make them unlike normal cells. They do this without affecting most normal, healthy cells. The medicines are different from standard chemotherapy medicines. They may work when chemotherapy medicines don’t and often have less severe side effects.