Breast Cancer and Adjuvant Therapy
What is adjuvant therapy?
When you are first diagnosed with breast cancer, the surgery you receive is meant to remove as many of the cancer cells in your breast as possible. Cancer cells are very small and can be hard to detect, and it is possible that some of these cells are still in your breast, lymph nodes, or elsewhere in your body even after surgery. These cells may begin to multiply again and another tumor can appear. This is called recurrence.
To help prevent cancer from coming back, patients may be given adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant means "in addition to." In this case, it means treatment given after your initial surgery. Different adjuvant treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation, hormonal therapy, and targeted biologic therapy, have different ways of keeping whatever cancer cells may still be in your body from growing and multiplying into a tumor.
Risk of cancer returning (recurrence)
Depending on your particular cancer, one or more of these treatments can reduce your risk of recurrence. Your chance of recurrence depends on many factors, known as risk factors, such as:
- How large the tumor is
- How quickly the cancer cells grow and multiply
- Whether there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes
- Your cancer's hormone receptor status
- Your cancer's HER2 status
Knowing what kind of tumor you have helps your doctor decide how much you are at risk for cancer coming back and which adjuvant treatments you should receive.
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