Is surgery always needed to treat breast cancer?
The time just after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer can be frightening and confusing. Whether you choose to work with a nurse navigator or not, you’ll be looking into treatment options and trying to plan for what comes next. You may wonder, is surgery always needed to treat breast cancer? Are there ways to treat breast cancer where surgery can be avoided?
Medical oncologist Darren E. Mullins, MD, offers some answers on when surgery is the best option for breast cancer and what types of surgery may be utilized to treat the disease.
Is surgery always needed to treat breast cancer?
“For early stage breast cancers, surgery remains the standard of care and often one of the first steps in a patient’s treatment plan,” said Dr. Mullins.
For stages I, II and III, surgical therapy is offered, usually along with radiation therapy if needed to control and hopefully prevent the growth of cancer within the breast. Chemotherapy and possibly immunotherapy may be useful based on the subtype of tumor and the chance of the cancer recurring. It is given in these cases as a preventive to help prevent disease recurrence elsewhere in the body. When used, it can be given before surgery or afterward, depending on the patient’s individual situation.
Is stage IV breast cancer treated with surgery?
“Whether or not surgery is the right choice as a treatment for stage IV breast cancer is still debated by oncologists, surgeons and other medical professionals,” said Dr. Mullins.
Some physicians believe surgery should be offered, as they believe that controlling the primary tumor to the greatest extent possible can add to a patient’s quality of life and may provide an overall clinical benefit.
Others believe that stage IV breast cancer is a nonsurgical condition. These physicians believe that in most cases there is no overall advantage to a patient in having surgery on the breast in this stage of disease, as controlling disease that has spread is their primary concern.
What kinds of breast cancer surgeries are there?
“The different types of surgery for breast cancer are a lumpectomy, also known as breast conservation and a mastectomy or removal of the breast,” said Dr. Mullins.
What surgical options will be most helpful is individualized to each and every patient. A multi-disciplinary team of experts looks through the patient’s medical history, imaging and pathology to create an individualized treatment plan that can be discussed in detail with the patient.
How is it decided if a breast cancer patient needs surgery or not?
“I would never say that surgery is always the definitive answer, or that it isn’t,” said Dr. Mullins. “It is, however, often a central part of a treatment plan for breast cancer that has not spread elsewhere. Every patient is different, and we take into account each and every individual’s history and existing medical conditions before we make any recommendation.”
After your initial cancer diagnosis, your treatment team will work with you on understanding the need for certain kinds of treatment and why, including your current stage of cancer, what options are available and which will be most effective in your unique case.
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