Know More About Types Of Breast Cancer Treatment

Once the disease diagnosis is confirmed, to determine its stage to necessary tests are have to perform. It is necessary to determine which is the most suitable breast cancer treatment for you. There are various therapies by which it is possible to treatment for breast cancer. Combination therapies are often used as complementary treatments (adjunctive treatments) to obtain a complete cure. The doctor will make the most appropriate decision for each patient, taking into account each case. How is colon cancer treated based on the stage?

Types Of Breast Cancer Treatment

Surgery

Lumpectomy

• Basic Lumpectomy is a conservative treatment that removes the tumor with a sufficient margin of healthy tissue.
• Segmentectomy is the removal of the largest segment of the gland.

It combined treatment with axillary emptying (removing the lymph nodes in the armpit) and radiation therapy. It happens when the removal characteristics allow preserving abreast of adequate volume and shape, and some conditions ensure maximum healing.

Studies on the concept say in some particular cases the possibility of avoiding axillary emptying by removing a single specific selected node, which analyzes and monitors the affected tissues.

Mastectomy

• Radical mastectomy, the breast, the pectoral muscles that support it, and thus they remove lymph nodes.
• Modified radical mastectomy allows the recovery of the pectoral muscles to facilitate a subsequent aesthetic reconstruction.

Side Effects

Surgeries like Lumpectomy and Mastectomy are due to the nature of the therapy, and there are no immediate side effects except for those that may derive from the intervention wound itself:

• Wound infection
• Hematoma (accumulated blood)
• Seroma (accumulated clear fluid)

Axillary Emptying:

• Lymphedema: It is an accumulation of fluid in the arm and hand that causes swelling. It does not appear soon, and it can take a few months or even years.

Precautions :

• Perform blood draws on the arm opposite to the intervention.
• Determine the blood pressure in the arm opposing the intervention.
• Protect your hands with gloves when carrying out activities that may involve scratches or wounds.

Radiotherapy Treatment For Breast Cancer

This therapy aims to destroy viable cancer cells in the area of its administration. It is mandatory after conservative surgical treatment for breast cancer.

Before starting the radiotherapy sessions, they carry out a verification line. It is called “simulation,” which consists of defining the parts of the body that will be irradiated. Sometimes observers use them as an adjunct to mastectomy.

Forms Of Application

• External: The most common method is to administer in brief daily sessions. The patient does not have direct contact with the body with the machine through which they receives the treatment for breast cancer. There are different sources of radiation. They are cobalt therapy, electron accelerator, etc., with specific reference according to the specialist’s indication.
• Internal (brachytherapy): This involves placing radioactive substances near the inside of the tumor (or areas of suspicion that it may have tumor cells). They remove these substances after a few days. It has a localized advantage of not taking a long time and not requiring, except for limitations, the patient’s admission to the health center.

Side Effects

In general, radiotherapy produces irritation of the skin in the irradiated area. Although to a greater or lesser degree, such area is depending on the person who gets its application. The radiation oncologist will inform you of the appropriate product to minimize this effect.

Chemotherapy

Usually, intravenous administration of drugs eliminates complementing local surgery and radiotherapy treatments also cancer cells that they may have throughout the body.

Chemotherapy is a technique that uses several drugs in sequence. All these sequences are known as a treatment cycle or session, accompanied by a recovery period.

Side Effects

They depend on the drugs which the doctors administer to the patient. These drugs are toxic to cancer cells, which means that they destroy or prevent them from reproducing. However, it also includes – albeit to a lesser extent – in normal cells. For this reason, side effects occur, among which it is worth highlighting:

• Vomiting: it does not appear in all cases; currently, many drugs can prevent or mitigate them.
• Hair loss: it does not occur in all cases; it depends on the drug used (hair always grows back)
• White blood cell deficiency (neutropenia): the system may lower down the body’s defenses.
• Diarrhea
• Ulcers in the mouth and the digestive system
• Cardiac disorders
• Cessation of menstruation (amenorrhea)
• Early menopause

Anti-HER2 Target Treatments

Biological Treatments

Biological treatments or targeted therapies are related to acting with precision on specific molecular processes that the tumor needs for its growth and progression. It contrasts with “traditional chemotherapies,” which affect all rapidly dividing cells since they are cancerous or healthy cells.

Therefore, biological treatments can be more controlled than other types of treatment and less harmful to healthy cells. Some specific targeted biologic therapies are available for HER2-positive breast cancer. They are monoclonal antibodies like trastuzumab, which specifically target the HER2 receptor.

Doctors usually administer these treatments by injection into a vein (intravenously), but precisely specific recently studied techniques. Applying specific cancer treatments by subcutaneous injection (in the layer just below the skin) will significantly shorten the administration time. Apart from trastuzumab, there are other biological treatments such as Pertuzumab and TDM1.

Pertuzumab is a monoclonal antibody whose action is directed to inhibit the signalling pathways of HER2 + breast tumors and enables the death of tumor cells. It has an essential effect on the control of the cell cycle. Its mechanism of action is different from that of other antiHER2 drugs, which increases the effectiveness of the treatments used in this type of tumor.

On the other hand, T-DM1 is an innovative, unique and selective new antineoplastic drug approved to treat HER2-positive advanced breast cancer. An antibody-drug conjugate combines the monoclonal anti-HER2 antibody, trastuzumab, and the cytotoxic antimicrotubule agent, DM1. Link together by a very stable bond that prevents these agents from being released into the bloodstream. T-DM1 combines the biological properties of trastuzumab with the powerful cytotoxic effect of DM1. By acting selectively on HER2-positive tumors cells, minimizing its effects on healthy cells. They expect to have greater antitumor efficacy, along with a better safety profile.

Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

Therapy drugs target Tyrosine kinase inhibitors that block the signals that tumors need to grow. Lapatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, blocks the effects of the HER2 protein and other proteins inside tumor cells. Combining with capecitabine, it indicates treating patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Its symptoms overexpress HER2. Patients must have experienced progressive disease after prior treatment.

Antiangiogenic

Angiogenesis

Tumors, like other tissues in the body, need food to grow. The body’s tissues need food to survive, and the nutrients they suffer mainly through the blood that circulates through the blood vessels. Tumors At first, the tumor is small and receives nutrients from the surrounding blood vessels. If tumors grow uncontrollably, the nutrients they receive through these vessels are insufficient and continue growing. They force to induce the formation of new blood vessels. This process of forming new blood vessels is called angiogenesis. VEGF is the crucial mediator of this process.

Antiangiogenic Drugs

Considering the characteristics of VEGF described above, it is clear that VEGF inhibition represents a new approach to antineoplastic therapy with the possibility of:

• Produce regression of immature blood vessels characteristic of tumors.
• Reduce vascular permeability and thus decrease intratumoral pressure.
• Decrease the likelihood of tumor metastases

These observations indicate that VEGF inhibition could be a rational therapeutic approach for a wide variety of tumor types. One of the most promising methods for VEGF inhibition is the production of humanized anti-VEGF monoclonal antibodies. These activities are also complementary to current therapeutic modalities, particularly chemotherapy and tumor-targeting biological agents.

One of the indicators coming across above we term as angiogenesis inhibitor Avastin. It is the first unmistakable indication. Owing to the clinical benefit of anti-VEGF therapy, it so happens.