Breast Cancer Detection & Treatment
Posted on October 7, 2014
Hello!
Yesterday I talked about breast cancer statistics. Today I would like to talk about detection and treatment. Here are some great tips from cancer.gov that I thought would be a good to share. Please forward along to family and friends so they can be informed too!!
Detection
Screening mammography and physical examination of the breasts can help to detect presymptomatic breast cancer. Research has demonstrated (in randomized, controlled trials of screening) that digital mammography is the standard for detecting breast cancer. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that women get regular mammography screenings beginning at the age of 40 unless there are other risk factors that would lower the age.
USPSTF Recommends:
- Biennial screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years, there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is small. Although the USPSTF recognizes that the benefit of screening seems equivalent for women aged 40 to 49 years and 50 to 59 years, the incidence of breast cancer and the consequences differ. The USPSTF emphasizes the adverse consequences for most women—who will not develop breast cancer—and therefore use the number needed to screen to save 1 life as its metric. By this metric, the USPSTF concludes that there is moderate evidence that the net benefit is small for women aged 40 to 49 years.
- Biennial screening mammography in women aged 50 to 74 years, there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is moderate.
- For screening mammography in women 75 years or older, evidence is lacking and the balance of benefits and harms cannot be determined.
To learn more visit:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention/breast/Patient/page3#Keypoint14
Treatment
There are several effective treatments available for breast cancer today. The following is an excerpt from:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/breast/Patient/page5#Keypoint19
Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. A treatment clinical trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain information on new treatments for patients with cancer. When clinical trials show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard treatment. Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.
Six types of standard treatment are used:
- Surgery
Most patients with breast cancer have surgery to remove the cancer from the breast. Some of the lymph nodes under the arm are usually taken out and looked at under a microscope to see if they contain cancer cells.
Breast-conserving surgery, an operation to remove the cancer but not the breast itself, includes Lumpectomy or partial mastectomy. Other types of surgery include total mastectomy or modified radical mastectomy.
- Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy may be given before surgery to remove the tumor. When given before surgery, chemotherapy will shrink the tumor and reduce the amount of tissue that needs to be removed during surgery. Treatment given before surgery is called neoadjuvant therapy.
- Sentinel lymph node biopsy followed by surgery
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the removal of the sentinel lymph node during surgery.
- Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing.
- Hormone therapy
Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that removes hormones or blocks their action and stops cancer cells from growing.
- Targeted therapy
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that uses drugs or other substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells without harming normal cells.
More detail can be found at:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/breast/Patient/page5#Keypoint19
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