The primary goal of treatment for breast cancer is to treat the whole breast. That can be accomplished by removal of the whole breast, or mastectomy. Or it can be accomplished by breast preservation therapy, which involves removal of the lump.
In general, the plan for adjuvant therapy is established after all the information comes back from surgery. So that means adjuvant therapy could begin as soon as two weeks after surgery. But it can also start up to month after surgery is finished.
In that period of time, a woman needs to get opinions from the surgeon, from the medical oncologist, the radiation oncologist, as well as the pathologist and the radiologist so that the treatment plan is tailored to the woman's situation.
What does chemotherapy involve?
Chemotherapy is one option for reducing risk of recurrence. Generally, chemotherapy works by blocking the growth of cancer cells, keeping them from making new cells and preventing cancer cells from repairing themselves.
Chemotherapy may be an option for someone who has cancer that is large; that has lymph node involvement; that does not have hormone receptors; or that has features that indicate it may be an aggressive tumor. The doctor uses these different pieces of information to determine a woman's risk of having cancer elsewhere.
