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Breast Cancer Treatment
The importance of personalized breast cancer treatment
Breast Cancer Treatment
Breast cancer (mammary carcinoma) is the most common form of cancer in women and also affects men in 0.5 to 1% of cases.
Today, if breast cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, the outlook for the treatment is usually very good. The availability of a range of treatments provides doctors with a broad spectrum of treatment options that can be optimally tailored to the individual patients and the tumor.
Modern radiotherapy for breast cancer in particular offers a variety of technologies – from radioactive solutions (e.g. rice-sized radioactive metal beads called seeds that are injected directly into the tumor tissue or liquids) to non-radioactive solutions (e.g. electron- and photon-based radiation therapy) – that allow doctors and patients to determine the best course of treatment for each individual, taking the patient’s needs into account.
Whether a certain form of radiation therapy is suitable for you depends on a range of factors. Talk to your doctor to learn about your therapy options.
From diagnosis to follow-up care
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A diagnosis of breast cancer is always unsettling and raises a host of questions that you should talk to your doctor about: What are the next steps, what are my treatment options, and how will this diagnosis affect my life and the lives of my loved ones?
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Depending on your personal situation, the particulars of the tumor, and the time at which the tumor was discovered, a team of breast care experts will develop a personalized treatment plan for you.
There may be a number of options that are clinically appropriate for you. In this case, you can choose your preferred course of treatment in consultation with your doctor.
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The treatment options and combinations of treatments that are possible and appropriate in your case depend on a variety of criteria that you should discuss in detail with your doctor. However, all breast cancer patients need to have the tumor surgically removed. There are two kinds of surgery:
- mastectomy: removal of the whole breast
- partial mastectomy/lumpectomy: removal of the tumor along with a small amount of healthy breast tissue.
Before and/or after surgery medical treatment (also called systemic therapy) is often added to the treatment plan. This can include:
- chemotherapy: intravenous or oral anti-cancer drugs
- hormone therapy: drugs to reduce estrogen-levels
- immunotherapy: medication to activate the immune system to detect and kill cancer cells
Before, during or after surgery radiotherapy as external or internal beam radiation is often used to kill remaining cancer cells
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The length of the overall treatment depends on the therapy you have chosen.
Radiotherapy treatment generally takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months. In the best case, the length of treatment can be shortened from about six weeks (conventional external beam radiation therapy) to a single day (intraoperative radiation therapy).
Regardless of the type of treatment you receive, make sure you take enough time to rest. Breast cancer treatment can be an emotionally and physically demanding process for you and your loved ones.
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For many patients, treatment does not end with the completion of chemotherapy and/or radiation. Especially in the case of metastatic breast cancer, additional treatments may follow.
After treatment, you should visit your doctor for regular check-ups to closely monitor the results of your treatment and progress of recovery.
In addition to physical check-ups by your doctor, other measures such as annual mammography screenings and breast ultrasound examinations are performed according to your doctor’s recommendation.
In many cases, concerns about medium- and long-term side effects such as skin irritation or cardiovascular disease are unfounded. If you are still uncertain or have already detected changes to your body, talk to your doctor.
Some patients also find it very helpful to talk about their illness and treatment experiences with family members, friends, or self-help groups.
At a glance
- precise, targeted single dose which is injected directly into the tumor bed after tumor removal in low risk patients
- local, high-dose radiation of the target tissue with photons whose radiation decays rapidly
- can be used as a standalone treatment (IORT only; in low risk patients only) or in combination (IORT + EBRT) to reduce journeys for treatment of external beam radiation therapy
Advantages of intraoperative radiation therapy
- Can reduce radiation necrosis on risk areas, aiming to preserve healthy tissue and organs close to the breast.
- Can cause less radiation-induced side effects, less pain and better cosmetic outcomes. However, surgery is still likely to leave a scar.
- Offers shorter treatment courses.
- Helps to reduce total treatment costs.
- Shorter treatment courses reduce the number of trips for the patient to the radiotherapy center leading to less CO2 emission.
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Frequently asked questions
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Due to the steep radiation dose fall-off, local IORT is minimizing the risk of damaging surrounding organs or healthy tissue.
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Since intraoperative radiation therapy is performed under anesthesia, the patient does not feel the radiation itself. However, since radiation does affect the tissue, patients may feel something like sunburn following therapy. Compared to EBRT, IORT can cause less radiation-induced side effects, less pain and better cosmetic outcomes for breast cancer patients.
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Boost radiation means that the tumor bed is exposed to a local, precise single higher dose of radiation in addition to external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) can be performed as a single treatment (low risk patients) or as a boost. This is decided in consultation with the treating doctor.
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No. Photon- and electron-based IORT does not use any radioactive material; instead, this treatment relies on electromagnetic waves, i.e. quickly moving electrons or photons. The moment the treatment devices are turned off, no more radiation is released around the device or in the patient’s body.
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This depends on the IORT treatment your doctor prescribes. In the case of single-dose IORT, no additional radiation therapy is required. In the case of boost IORT, additional EBRT radiation therapy sessions are required, but still fewer than is the case for EBRT treatment alone.