Treatments of breast cancer depend on different factors such as size and location of the tumor etc.
Breast cancer can be treated with such methods as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, and biologic therapy.
Treatments are divided in two: local and systematic.
Local treatments (surgery and radiation therapy) are used to destroy cancer cells in one defected area.
Systematic treatments (chemotherapy and hormonal therapy) are used to destroy or control cancer cells all over the body.
Surgery is the most common treatment for a breast cancer. The surgeries have been divided in two: breast-sparing surgery (removes the cancerous lump, not the entire breast) and mastectomy (removes the whole breast).
When a woman has been treated for a breast cancer, it is important that she remains under close surveillance for a certain period of time, so that any recurrence would be discovered as early as possible. Usually a patient has to go to follow-up visits to a doctor in every 3-4 months. The next period will be a little longer when no traces of cancer is found on a visit, until in 5 years time (when the cancer hasn’t returned) a patient can go to check her health again only once a year as every other middle-aged woman who hasn’t had a disease.
