Chemotherapy for breast cancer
In cancer treatment, chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs to kill or growth of a rapid multiplication of cells, such as the delay of cancer.
Chemotherapy usually contains a combination of drugs is often more effective 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 can you expect from your chemotherapy drugs.
Because chemotherapy for breast cancer
Drugs for breast cancer chemotherapy 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 can spread outside the breast to achieve – so the chemotherapy is considered a “systemic” form of treatment for breast cancer.
Chemotherapy is administered in cycles of treatment, followed by a recovery period. The entire chemotherapy treatment takes several months to a year, depending on the type of certain drugs.
When you are given chemotherapy 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 administered as a treatment of choice for women that the cancer has spread to other parts of the body beyond the breast and lymph nodes. This spread is called metastatic breast cancer and is available in a small number of women at diagnosis, or if the cancer comes back sometime after the initial treatment of localized (non-metastatic) breast cancer.
Chemotherapy can also be administered before surgery to shrink a tumor.
Work during chemotherapy for breast cancer
Most people are able to continue working while receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. You can schedule your treatment during the day or just before the weekend, so they do not interfere with your work program. You can adjust the schedule while undergoing chemotherapy, especially if you have side effects.
If you receive adjuvant chemotherapy (after surgery for removal of all cancers known), it is possible for the doctor to directly determine whether the treatment works because there is no tumor left to evaluate. However, adjuvant chemotherapy has proved useful in studies where some women received chemotherapy, while others do not.
After the completion of adjuvant therapy, the doctor to evaluate your progress through regular physical examinations, routine mammograms, and appropriate tests as a new problem arises. If you are treated with chemotherapy for metastatic disease, progress is monitored by blood tests, scans and / or x-rays.
Possible Side effects of chemotherapy drugs
Specific side effects of chemotherapy occur depends on the type and amount of medication you receive and how long 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.
High risk of infection (due to decreased white blood cells).
Bruising or bleeding.
Fatigue.
Ask your health care provider about specific side effects can you expect from your specific chemotherapeutic drugs. Also discuss with your provider side effects that are worrying you or you can not manage.
Treatment of breast cancer with chemotherapy
Chemotherapy refers to the use of anti-cancer drugs to destroy cancer cells. The doctor determines that the drug and what is known as an oncologist. Chemotherapy can be used for three main purposes:
Adjuvant therapy: the goal is to help prevent or delay the cancer returns after the first surgery and radiotherapy. Even if the cancer appears to be confined to the breast and lymph nodes under the arm, there is a chance that all cells can spread to other areas that can not be seen. Chemotherapy is given to try to kill the cells.
Neo-adjuvant. Sometimes breast cancer is so great that shrinks for the first time with chemotherapy may make it easier to do an operation.
Treatment of metastatic disease. If the cancer shows in some parts of the body that 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 them live longer with good quality of life. Where to begin chemotherapy, what drugs to use and what to expect side effects vary 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 drug is for use in women who have breast cancer HER-2 gene
Chemotherapy drugs are usually given weekly 2.4 cycles. In neo-adjuvant and adjuvant settings are usually in combinations of two or more drugs. Monotherapy (one drug at a time) can be a good choice for the treatment of breast cancer has already spread to other areas.
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. The treatment plan was 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 chemotherapy intravenously, others receive chemotherapy to once a day for a week in the office of their physician. Some patients receive chemotherapy in pill form.