What is Breast Cancer Treatment?
BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery), 10 years of experience
What is the meaning of Breast Cancer Treatment?
Procedures like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy, and hormone therapy are the various treatment modalities for cancer of the breast. These procedures are known as breast cancer treatments.
Breast cancer is cancer that develops in the breast cells. It forms in the lobules or ducts of the breast. The breast lobule is the gland in which milk is produced. This milk is transported from the lobules to the nipples by a thin tube known as the ducts of the breast.
Breast cancer can also develop in the fibrous breast tissues. These tissues are also called stromal tissues.
Cancerous cells attack healthy breast tissue and travel to the lymph nodes in the arms.
Every year several cases of breast cancer are reported in women in India. The average rate of breast cancer in India is 16% to 29.9%. Breast cancer accounts for 18.1% of cancer deaths worldwide.
Let’s get more information about breast cancer and breast cancer treatment in today’s article.
- What is Breast Cancer?
- What are the types of Breast Cancer?
- What are the causes of Breast Cancer?
- What are the risk factors for Breast Cancer?
- What are the symptoms of Breast Cancer?
- How to diagnose Breast Cancer?
- What are the various Breast Cancer Treatments?
- What are the complications of Breast Cancer Treatment?
- How to prevent Breast Cancer?
- What is the cost of Breast Cancer Treatment in India?
What is Breast Cancer?
- Breast cancer is one of the many diseases that occur in women.
- Breast cancer occurs when mutations take place in genes that control cell growth.
- Due to these mutations, the cells start multiplying in an uncontrolled manner.
- These cells affect the healthy cells and obstruct their growth.
- In such cases, tumors develop in women.
- Breast cancer generally develops in those women who have a history of breast conditions such as pain, itching, infection, etc. in the breasts.
What are the types of Breast Cancer?
There are several types of breast cancer.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS):
- This is a non-invasive type of cancer.
- The cancer cells are confined to the breast ducts and have not spread to the surrounding breast tissue.
Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS):
- This type of cancer grows in the milk-producing glands of the breast.
- The cancer cells have not spread to the surrounding breast tissue.
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC):
- Invasive ductal carcinoma accounts for 70 percent of the cancers in women.
- This type of breast cancer develops in the breast ducts, also known as milk ducts.
- This cancer spreads from the breast ducts into the surrounding fatty tissues of the breast.
- It can then begin to spread to the nearby tissues and organs.
Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC):
- This type of cancer develops in the lobules of the breast.
- It then begins to spread to the nearby tissues.
Inflammatory carcinoma:
- This type of breast cancer is rarely seen in women. It accounts for only 1 percent of the total cancer cases.
- Inflammatory carcinoma occurs when the cancer cells block the lymphatic vessels in the skin that covers the breast.
- This breast cancer can spread throughout the body due to which there is a possibility of the patient’s death.
Paget’s Disease:
- Such breast cancer cases are seen in only 1 percent of the total breast cancer cases.
- This type of cancer begins in the ducts of the nipple.
- As the tumor grows it begins to spread to the skin and areola of the nipple.
- In this type of cancer, blood accumulates around the nipples due to which the surrounding area turns black.
Phyllodes tumor:
- This is a rare type of breast cancer.
- This type of tumor grows in the connective tissue of the breast.
- Most of these tumors are non-cancerous (benign), but some may be cancerous.
Angiosarcoma:
- This type of breast cancer grows on the lymph vessels or blood vessels in the breast.
What are the causes of Breast Cancer?
- The exact cause of breast cancer development is not known.
- Breast cancer occurs when the mutated cells (a change in the DNA sequence of a cell) grow out of control, forming a tumor.
- These mutations may either be somatic (not inherited) or genetic (inherited from a parent).
- Somatic mutations are known to be the most common cause of developing breast cancer. ( Know more about- What is Uterine Fibroids Treatment? Purpose, Procedure,Aftercare, Cost )
What are the risk factors for Breast Cancer?
Certain factors are known to increase the risk of developing breast cancer. These factors include:
- Increase in age
- Most likely to develop in females
- Past history of breast disorders
- Past history of breast cancer
- Family history of breast cancer
- Exposure to radiation
- Obesity (Know more about: What is Obesity?)
- Beginning of menstrual period before the age of 12
- Delayed menopause (stopping of menstrual period) (Know more about: Symptoms of Menopause?)
- Childbirth at an older age
- No history of pregnancy ( Know more about- What is an I-pill ? Benefits and Side Effects )
- Alcohol consumption
- Smoking
- Long-term use of contraceptive pills
- Taking hormonal drugs to replace estrogen and progesterone during menopause for more than five years
What are the symptoms of Breast Cancer?
- Breast lump
- Bleeding from the nipples
- Changes in the skin on breasts
- Lumps in the arms
- Inverted nipple
- Sudden change in shape or size of the breast
- Peeling of skin on nipple or breast
- The breast color changes to red
- Abnormal fluid discharge from the nipples other than breast milk
How to diagnose Breast Cancer?
The doctor will first ask the patient about the signs and symptoms, the medical history, and the family history of the patient. The following tests are then done to confirm the diagnosis of breast cancer:
- Breast examination: The doctor will check both the breasts and the lymph nodes in the armpit to feel any lumps or abnormalities that may be present.
- Mammogram: An x-ray of the breast is known as a mammogram. It is a screening procedure to detect breast cancer.
- Breast Ultrasound: In an ultrasound, sound waves are used to create images of the internal organs of the body.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan: A strong magnet and radio waves are used to create images of the breast.
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan: A technique used to measure the signal from injected radioactive materials that migrate to the cancer cells which are rapidly dividing. The PET scanner picks up this signal to create an image.
- Biopsy: A small part of the suspected tissue growth is excised by the doctor and sent to the laboratory for further investigations. It helps to diagnose or rule our breast cancer, determining the type of cancer cells present, and the grade of cancer. (Grades of cancer range from 0 to IV, with grade 0 indicating non-invasive cancer, and stage IV indicating metastatic breast cancer, that is, cancer that has spread to other parts of the body).
What are the various Breast Cancer Treatments?
The treatment of breast cancer depends on the type of breast cancer, its stage, size of the tumor, and the overall health of the patient.
Surgery is the most common form of treatment for breast cancer. Other additional treatments can be done with surgery to treat breast cancer.
The following treatments can be done for the treatment of breast cancer:
- Surgery: Many types of surgeries can be done to remove a breast tumor, which includes:
- Lumpectomy: The procedure involves the removal of the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue, leaving the remaining part of the breast intact.
- Mastectomy: It is the surgical removal of the entire breast. A double mastectomy means the removal of both breasts.
- Sentinel node biopsy: In this procedure, a few lymph nodes receiving drainage from the tumor are removed and sent to the laboratory for testing. If the cancer report is negative, no additional surgery would be required to remove the lymph nodes.
- Axillary lymph node dissection: If the lymph nodes removed during sentinel node biopsy are found to be cancerous, the doctor may remove additional lymph nodes, known as the axillary lymph node dissection.
- Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy: Even though only one breast is diagnosed to have cancer, some people choose to remove the healthy breast as well. This is done to reduce the chances of developing breast cancer again.
- Radiation therapy: In this procedure, high-powered radiation beams are used for targeting and killing cancer cells.
- This technique is usually performed using a large machine that emits external beam radiation on the outside of the body.
- A procedure known as brachytherapy may be used to remove cancer from inside the body. This procedure involves the placement of radioactive seeds inside the body, near the site of the tumor. The seeds stay there for a short time and destroy the cancer cells.
- Chemotherapy: This is a procedure in which certain drugs or medications are used for destroying the cancer cells. (Know more about: What is Chemotherapy)
- This treatment is often used along with surgery to remove cancer.
- Chemotherapy may be done before surgery to shrink the cancer cells, so that they may be easily removed later by surgery.
- Hormone therapy: Hormone therapy or hormone-blocking therapy are used in the treatment of breast cancers that are sensitive to hormones. ( Know more about- What is Hormonal Imbalance in Females? Causes, Symptoms, Treatment )
- Hormone therapy helps in blocking the production of estrogen and progesterone (female sex hormones) or by blocking the hormone receptors on the cancer cells by the use of certain medications.
- This helps in slowing down or stopping cancer growth.
- Targeted therapy drugs: Certain drugs help in attacking specific abnormalities within the cancer cells.
- Immunotherapy: The body’s immune system (disease-fighting system of the body) is used in this procedure to fight cancer.
- Cancer cells produce proteins that blind the cells of the body’s immune system and prevent the body from fighting against cancer. Immunotherapy prevents this from happening.
- Palliative (supportive) care: A specialized medical care that helps in providing relief from pain and other symptoms associated with a serious illness is called supportive care.
- Palliative care may be provided by doctors, nurses, and people in other specializations.
- Palliative care is used along with other forms of treatment to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families.
What are the complications of Breast Cancer Treatment?
The various complications associated with breast cancer treatment are:
- Fatigue
- Infection
- Bleeding
- Bruising
- Disturbances in sleep
- Loss of hair
- Depression ( Know more about- What is Depression? Causes, Symptoms, Treatment )
- Secondary cancers
- Damage to the heart
- Inflammation of the lungs
- Blood clot formation
- Pain in breasts
- Hardness due to the formation of scar tissue
- Temporary swelling of breasts
- Swelling of the arm (in case of lymph node removal)
- Phantom breast pain (Itching, pressure, throbbing, and a feeling of pins being pierced into the breast)
If you notice any of the above symptoms post breast cancer treatment, contact your doctor immediately.
How to prevent Breast Cancer?
- Avoid smoking and alcohol consumption to prevent cancer.
- Women should do regular physical exercises.
- Regular breast exams and mammograms help in early breast cancer screening and treatment.
- Postmenopausal hormonal therapy should be limited, after consultation with a doctor.
- Women who breastfeed do not have the problem of breast cancer.
- Avoid consuming junk food and consume a healthy diet.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
What is the cost of Breast Cancer Treatment in India?
The total cost of breast cancer treatment in India can range from around INR 3,00,000 to INR 14,00,000. However, the cost of the procedure may vary across different hospitals. There are many big hospitals and specialized doctors in India for breast cancer treatment. The cost varies across different hospitals.
If you are coming from abroad, in addition to the expenses of breast cancer treatment, there will be a cost of staying in a hotel, cost of living, and cost of local travel. Apart from this, after the procedure, the patient is kept in hospital for 5 days and in the hotel for 15 days for recovery. So, the total cost of breast cancer treatment in India comes to be around INR 5,00,000 to INR 16,00,000.
We hope that all your questions regarding breast cancer and breast cancer treatment have been answered through this article.
If you want to get more information and the treatment of breast cancer, then immediately contact a Surgical Oncologist.
We only aim to give you information through the article and do not recommend medication or treatment in any way. Only a doctor can give you the best advice and correct treatment plan.
