For women the diagnosis of breast cancer is a devastating one.
Knowing the type and stage of cancer gives a patient a chance to look at the prognosis and all of the available options.
Your doctor will be able to discuss each of the therapy modalities in great details with you and offer you his opinion but the final decision rests with the patient and her family.
Stage 2 breast cancer is often caught through mammograms or routine office visits or in some cases by the patient herself while performing regular, monthly breast exams.
In this stage of development all of the cancerous cells are still localized within the breast tissue although there may be minimal invasion and attachment to local lymph nodes.
The survival rate and the prognosis for women with stage 2 breast cancer are quite positive.
The five year survival rate is close to 90%.
There are many treatment options that a woman can elect to choose for this type of treatment.
The more knowledgeable she and her family are the better choice she will be able to make.
The treatment plans that are used by the medical community in treating breast cancers at different stages all have approved protocols and procedures but they may be used individually or in combinations of one or more treatments.
Some patients and doctors also elect to become involved in various test studies to see which, if any treatments, offer a better cure and survival rate.
The most common treatment of course is surgical excision of the cancerous portion of the breast.
This can be done in two ways.
If the cancer is very small and still encapsulated or much localized to one immediate are the doctor will offer a choice of lumpectomy or mastectomy.
With a lumpectomy only a small portion of the breast tissue is removed.
The surgeon removes the cancerous portion of the breast and a certain amount of tissue surrounding it.
This procedure assures that all of the cancerous cells are indeed removed.
The surgeon may also elect to remove one or more lymph nodes that are associated with the area.
These lymph nodes are generally located in the armpit.
With a cancer that is a bit more invasive or appears to have spread to more areas of the breast or lymph nodes the approach recommended is almost always a mastectomy.
The mastectomy can be modified or radical.
A modified mastectomy leaves some breast tissue if possible.
A radical mastectomy is a drastic choice and involves the removal of all breast tissue and underlying tissue in addition to removal of lymph nodes.
Women often choose breast reconstruction surgery after their ordeal with cancer is over.
With a lumpectomy or a mastectomy some form of radiation therapy is given to make sure of killing any stray or missed cancer cells.
This is localized radiation to the breast and lymph node areas and generally involves six weeks of treatment.
Chemotherapy treatments are also used and this may be done before or after surgery, or both.
There are many newer therapies offered today.
One involves the use of Tamoxifen or Arimidex which are both known to be inhibiting to breast cancer cells.
They function best in the women who have cancers that are hormone receptor positive.
These medicines inhibit the hormone from triggering the wild growth and transformation of the cells.
Herceptin is another drug that intercepts the protein which is named HER2.
This protein makes cancer cells grow and spread rapidly.
The Herceptin blocks the protein from triggering the cells.
This is given along with chemo and radiation to those patients who have metastatic cancers and it is now being used in early cancer treatments as well and is one of the newest treatments out on the market.
Knowing the type and stage of cancer gives a patient a chance to look at the prognosis and all of the available options.
Your doctor will be able to discuss each of the therapy modalities in great details with you and offer you his opinion but the final decision rests with the patient and her family.
Stage 2 breast cancer is often caught through mammograms or routine office visits or in some cases by the patient herself while performing regular, monthly breast exams.
In this stage of development all of the cancerous cells are still localized within the breast tissue although there may be minimal invasion and attachment to local lymph nodes.
The survival rate and the prognosis for women with stage 2 breast cancer are quite positive.
The five year survival rate is close to 90%.
There are many treatment options that a woman can elect to choose for this type of treatment.
The more knowledgeable she and her family are the better choice she will be able to make.
The treatment plans that are used by the medical community in treating breast cancers at different stages all have approved protocols and procedures but they may be used individually or in combinations of one or more treatments.
Some patients and doctors also elect to become involved in various test studies to see which, if any treatments, offer a better cure and survival rate.
The most common treatment of course is surgical excision of the cancerous portion of the breast.
This can be done in two ways.
If the cancer is very small and still encapsulated or much localized to one immediate are the doctor will offer a choice of lumpectomy or mastectomy.
With a lumpectomy only a small portion of the breast tissue is removed.
The surgeon removes the cancerous portion of the breast and a certain amount of tissue surrounding it.
This procedure assures that all of the cancerous cells are indeed removed.
The surgeon may also elect to remove one or more lymph nodes that are associated with the area.
These lymph nodes are generally located in the armpit.
With a cancer that is a bit more invasive or appears to have spread to more areas of the breast or lymph nodes the approach recommended is almost always a mastectomy.
The mastectomy can be modified or radical.
A modified mastectomy leaves some breast tissue if possible.
A radical mastectomy is a drastic choice and involves the removal of all breast tissue and underlying tissue in addition to removal of lymph nodes.
Women often choose breast reconstruction surgery after their ordeal with cancer is over.
With a lumpectomy or a mastectomy some form of radiation therapy is given to make sure of killing any stray or missed cancer cells.
This is localized radiation to the breast and lymph node areas and generally involves six weeks of treatment.
Chemotherapy treatments are also used and this may be done before or after surgery, or both.
There are many newer therapies offered today.
One involves the use of Tamoxifen or Arimidex which are both known to be inhibiting to breast cancer cells.
They function best in the women who have cancers that are hormone receptor positive.
These medicines inhibit the hormone from triggering the wild growth and transformation of the cells.
Herceptin is another drug that intercepts the protein which is named HER2.
This protein makes cancer cells grow and spread rapidly.
The Herceptin blocks the protein from triggering the cells.
This is given along with chemo and radiation to those patients who have metastatic cancers and it is now being used in early cancer treatments as well and is one of the newest treatments out on the market.