Breast cancer treatment

There are many factors that need to be considered when determining your breast cancer treatment plan, including stage of disease, new diagnosis versus recurrence, tumor marker status, menopausal status, your age, prior treatment(s), and your overall health and lifestyle.

There are several different options for treating breast cancer. The following table lists the most common initial treatment options for patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent breast cancer.

Initial Disease Stage at Diagnosis	Most Common Initial Treatment Options
Stage 0 Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS)	Surgery ± radiation ± hormonal treatment
Stage I, II, and some IIIA	Surgery + lymph node dissection if lymph node-positive ± radiation ± chemotherapy ± hormonal treatment
Stage IIIB	Chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before surgery + surgery + radiation ± postsurgical chemotherapy ± hormonal treatment or chemotherapy ± radiation ± hormonal treatment
Stage IV	Hormonal treatment ± chemotherapy or palliative care to reduce breast cancer symptoms
Recurrence (local, regional, or distant)	Hormonal treatment ± chemotherapy ± novel targeted therapy

While there are several different ways to treat breast cancer, all options can be divided into two categories — local treatment or systemic treatment.

Local treatment is directed only at the cancer cells in the breast area. Surgery and radiation are the two local therapies for treating breast cancer. Local therapies only treat a specific area of the body and they are often used in combination with systemic therapy. Systemic therapy may be used to help reduce the risk for recurrence after local therapy is completed. The local treatments used for breast cancer are surgery and radiation.

Learn more about:

• Breast cancer surgery
• Breast cancer radiation therapy

Systemic treatment is the use of medications that travel in the bloodstream to affect or treat cancer cells. Systemic treatments include chemotherapy, hormonal treatment, and novel targeted therapies. They are often used in combination with local treatment in early breast cancer. Systemic treatments may also be used alone in more advanced stages when cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Learn more about these systemic treatments for breast cancer:

• Chemotherapy
• Hormonal treatment
• Novel targeted therapy