Check out our Diseases and Conditions Directory to find the relevant information and news on the health issues of your interest. We have an alphabetical listing on all the diseases and conditions that can affect you. Get information from Acne to the Zoster Virus. We have the most comprehensive list to suit your health knowledge needs.

There a different types of breast cancer treatments available for the different stages of this disease. These include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or a combination of them. The type of treatment will be determined by your doctor and according to your resistance.

Learn about surgery and radiation therapy now!

Surgery

Surgery is the first line of attack against breast cancer. The choices for surgery include mastectomy or lumpectomy. The first also referred as breast-conserving surgery consists in the removal of only the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue. The second is the removal of all the breast tissue. Mastectomy is more refined and less intrusive as the muscles under the breast are no longer removed.

Another breast cancer treatment is the lymph node removal, or axillary lymph node dissection. This can take place during lumpectomy and mastectomy. If the biopsy shows that breast cancer has spread outside the milk duct.

Breast reconstruction is the rebuilding of the breast after mastectomy and sometimes lumpectomy. Reconstruction can take place at the same time as cancer-removing surgery, or months to years later.

Another treatment is to remove the breast to lower the risk of breast cancer in high-risk people, this is called prophylactic mastectomy.

Radiation Therapy

Another type of breast cancer treatment is radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy. It's a highly targeted, highly effective way to destroy cancer cells in the breast that may stick around after surgery.

Radiation can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence by about 70%. The radiation therapy is relatively easy to tolerate when compared to chemotherapy. Its side effects are limited to the treated area, and increase the quality of life in patients with stage four of cancer.

Radiotherapy uses a special kind of high-energy beam to damage the cell's DNA, the material that cells use to divide. Cancer cells are very busy growing and multiplying and can be slowed or stopped by radiation damage.

Radiotherapy is delivered to the breast area, lymph nodes and other parts where its believed to spread in either a machine called a linear accelerator that delivers radiation from outside the body or pellets of material that give off radiation beams from inside the body.