Cancer Studies > Breast Cancer > Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

In cancer treatment, chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs to kill or growth of rapidly multiplying cells, such as cancer delay.

Chemotherapy usually contains a combination of drugs is often more efficient than a single drug given alone. There are many combinations of drugs used to treat breast cancer. Ask your doctor for specific information and side effects you can expect from your chemotherapy drugs.

Chemotherapy Given For Breast Cancer

For breast cancer chemotherapy drugs intravenously (directly into a vein) or orally (by mouth). Once the drugs enter the bloodstream, they travel to all parts of the body to which cancer cells may have spread beyond the breast to achieve – so chemotherapy is considered a “systemic” form of the treatment of breast cancer.

Chemotherapy is administered in cycles of treatment, followed by a recovery period. The entire chemotherapy treatment takes several months to one years, depending on the type of certain drugs.

When is Chemotherapy given for breast cancer?

When breast cancer is confined to the breast or lymph nodes, chemotherapy may be given after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. This is known as adjuvant therapy and may help reduce the risk of recurrence of breast cancer.

Chemotherapy can be given as the main treatment for women who cancer has spread to other parts of the body outside of the breast and lymph nodes. This spread is known as metastatic breast cancer and comes in a small number of women at the time of diagnosis, or if the cancer returns some time after the initial treatment of localized (non-metastatic) breast cancer.

Chemotherapy can also be given before surgery to shrink a tumor.

Work during Chemotherapy For Breast Cancer

Most people are able to continue working while receiving treatment with chemotherapy for their breast cancer. It is possible to schedule your treatments later in the day or just before the weekend, so much so they do not interfere with your work schedule. You can adapt your schedule while undergoing chemotherapy, especially if you have side effects.

If you receive adjuvant chemotherapy (after surgery that removed all of the known cancer), it is not possible for your doctor to directly determine whether the treatment works because there is no tumor left to assess. However, adjuvant chemotherapy treatments proved useful in studies where some women received chemotherapy, while others do not.

After completion of adjuvant therapy, your doctor to evaluate your progress through regular physical exams, routine mammograms, and appropriate tests as a new problem arises. If you are treated with chemotherapy for metastatic disease, the progress is monitored by blood tests, scans, and / or X-rays.

Possible Side Effects Of Chemotherapy Drugs

The specific side effects of chemotherapy you experience depend on the type and amount of medication you receive and how long you will take them. The most common side effects are temporary:

• Nausea and vomiting.
• Loss of appetite.
• Hair loss.
• Mouth ulcers.
• Changes in the menstrual cycle.
• Higher risk of infection (due to decreased white blood cells).
• Bruising or bleeding.
• Fatigue.

Ask your health care provider about specific side effects you can expect from your specific chemotherapy drugs. Also discuss with your provider side effects that are worrying you, or you do not manage.

Breast Cancer Treatment with Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy refers to the use of anti-cancer drugs to kill cancer cells. The physician determines which drugs and what does is known as an oncologist. Chemotherapy can be used for three main purposes:

1. Adjuvant therapy: The goal is to prevent or postpone cancer will return after the first surgery and radiation. Even if the cancer appears to be confined to the breast and lymph nodes under the arm, there is a chance that all cells may have spread to other areas that cannot be seen. Chemotherapy is given to try and kill these cells.
2. Neo-adjuvant therapy. Sometimes the cancer in the breast is so large that it shrinks for first time with chemotherapy may make it easier to do an operation.
3. The treatment of metastatic disease. If the cancer shows in parts of the body than the breast and lymph nodes under the arm, it is called metastatic disease. Chemotherapy is one of the main ways that cancer cells have spread to other parts of the dead body, and to help her live longer with a good quality of life. Where to start chemotherapy, what drugs to use and what side effects to expect varies from woman to woman. Women should discuss this with their doctors.

Common Chemotherapy Drugs for Breast Cancer

Some of the most common chemotherapy drugs used to treat breast cancer are:

• anthracyclines: This class of drugs includes doxorubicin (Adriamycin), epirubicin (Ellence), and liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil)
• taxane: This class of drugs includes docetaxel (Taxotere), paclitaxel (Taxol), and protein-bound paclitaxel (Abraxane)
• Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan)
• Capecitabine (Xeloda) and 5 fluorouracil (5 FU)
• vinorelbine (Navelbine)
• Gemcitabine (Gemzar)
• Trastuzumab (Herceptin): This medicine is for use in women who have breast cancer HER-2 gene

Chemotherapy drugs are usually given at week 2.4 cycles. In neo-adjuvant and adjuvant settings, they are usually in combinations of two or more drugs. Monotherapy (one drug at a time) can be a good choice in the treatment of breast cancer has already spread to other areas.

Receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer

For breast cancer, chemotherapy is given either by mouth or injected into a vein daily, weekly or every 2-4 weeks. Your treatment plan is designed for your specific condition. It can vary from someone else you know who had chemotherapy. For example, while some women in the hospital overnight to receive intravenous chemotherapy, others receive chemotherapy for one once a day for one week in their doctor’s office. Some patients receive chemotherapy in pill form.

Related posts:

1. Chemotherapy Breast Cancer
2. Breast Cancer Chemo
3. Treatment for Breast Cancer
4. Breast Cancer Treatment
5. Breast Cancer Treatment Options
6. Stage Four Breast Cancer
7. Advanced Breast Cancer
8. Metastatic Breast Cancer
9. About Breast Cancer
10. Breast Cancer Hormone Therapy

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