My Breakthrough
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy aims to destroy cancer cells that may have spread beyond your breast and lymph nodes in your armpit to other parts of your body.
It is a treatment with one or more anti-cancer (also called cytotoxic) drugs. Anti-cancer drugs work in different ways, but they all damage cancer cells so they can't divide and grow.
Chemotherapy is usually given after surgery, when it's called adjuvant chemotherapy. Sometimes it's given to shrink a tumour before surgery; in this case, it's called neo-adjuvant or primary chemotherapy.
After breast cancer surgery, you are most likely to be offered chemotherapy if your tumour has spread to the lymph nodes in your armpit. But you may be advised to have chemotherapy even if it hasn't spread there.
This will depend on your risk of recurrence. Your risk of recurrence may depend on the size and grade of the tumour, your age, whether the tumour has invaded any of the surrounding blood, and whether you may also respond to hormonal treatments.
Two or more anti-cancer drugs are generally used together. Some are tablets, others are injections or infusions ('drips') that you have in a vein in your arm. You can take tablets at home, but you will probably have injections or infusions in an out-patient clinic at your hospital.
A course of chemotherapy can last several weeks or months. It is made up of repeated cycles of treatment, usually a few weeks apart.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises the NHS on medical treatments, recommends that all women whose breast tumours have an intermediate or high risk of recurrence should normally be offered have four to eight cycles of chemotherapy which includes a drug called an anthracycline (e.g: doxorubicin, epirubicin). In September 2006, NICE recommended docetaxel (Taxotere) given with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide as a treatment option for women with early stage breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes.
Chemotherapy is usually given after surgery, when it's called adjuvant chemotherapy. Sometimes it's given to shrink a tumour before surgery; in this case, it's called neo-adjuvant or primary chemotherapy.
After breast cancer surgery, you are most likely to be offered chemotherapy if your tumour has spread to the lymph nodes in your armpit. But you may be advised to have chemotherapy even if it hasn't spread there.
This will depend on your risk of recurrence. Your risk of recurrence may depend on the size and grade of the tumour, your age, whether the tumour has invaded any of the surrounding blood, and whether you may also respond to hormonal treatments.
Two or more anti-cancer drugs are generally used together. Some are tablets, others are injections or infusions ('drips') that you have in a vein in your arm. You can take tablets at home, but you will probably have injections or infusions in an out-patient clinic at your hospital.
A course of chemotherapy can last several weeks or months. It is made up of repeated cycles of treatment, usually a few weeks apart.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises the NHS on medical treatments, recommends that all women whose breast tumours have an intermediate or high risk of recurrence should normally be offered have four to eight cycles of chemotherapy which includes a drug called an anthracycline (e.g: doxorubicin, epirubicin). In September 2006, NICE recommended docetaxel (Taxotere) given with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide as a treatment option for women with early stage breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes.
Commonly used types of chemotherapy for breast cancer
- CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil)
- FEC (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide)
- AC (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide)
- Epi-CMF (epirubicin followed by CMF)
- AC-Taxotere, also known as TAC
New ways of giving chemotherapy
Cancer specialists are continuing to look for new ways of giving chemotherapy, for example to find out which combinations of drugs work best, and in what order they should be given.Dealing with chemotherapy side effects
Unfortunately, all the anti-cancer drugs used in chemotherapy for breast cancer do have side effects. Anti-cancer drugs are designed to kill cells that multiply quickly. Cancer cells do this, but so do healthy cells in some parts of the body, for example in the mouth, intestines, bone marrow (where blood cells are made) and scalp. So most of the side effects of anti-cancer drugs affect these areas. But a lot can be done to help relieve side effects. See dealing with side effects.
Also within "Treatment"
