Other Breast Cancer Treatments

There are several other different types of treatment for breast cancer, for which we will provide a brief overview. These include:

• hormone therapy
  Hormone therapy is used to prevent the growth, spread, and recurrence of breast cancer. The female hormone estrogen can increase the growth of breast cancer cells in some women. A drug, such as tamoxifen, blocks the effects of estrogen on the growth of malignant cells in breast tissue. However, tamoxifen does not stop the production of estrogen. Hormone therapy may be considered for women whose breast cancers test positive for estrogen or progesterone receptors.

  Oophorectomy, surgery to remove the ovaries in women who have not gone through menopause, is a means of stopping the production of estrogen.

• adjuvant therapy
  Adjuvant therapy is therapy given after primary therapy - usually surgery to remove the cancer - to reduce the chance of the cancer spreading or recurring. The adjuvant therapy may be radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy.

• biological therapy
  Biological therapy uses the body's own materials, or those made in a laboratory, to assist the body in fighting the cancer. It may also be called biological response modifier therapy, or immunotherapy.

  Biological therapy treatments are designed to repair, stimulate, or increase the body's natural ability to fight cancer.

• bone marrow transplant / autologous stem cell therapy
  High doses of chemotherapy or radiation are sometimes used to kill cancer cells, also killing healthy blood-forming stem cells. To combat this, stem cells taken earlier from the patient's bone marrow, or separated from the blood, are later returned to the patient to help restore the body's ability to fight infection.