New Advances in Breast Cancer Treatment
Every year new treatments and medicines are made available in the war on cancer. For those of us who lost loved ones to cancer many years ago we can’t help but wonder if the outcome would have been different if they were diagnosed today. When it comes to coping with cancer there are always “what ifs.”
Because of all the advances taking place anyone newly diagnosed with cancer can be assured there are many more options available and if one treatment doesn’t work, then the next one may. That was the case with my cousin Martha. Her cancer was non-responsive to the chemo pills she took but is responding to the chemo therapy.
In my search for new information about medicines and treatments I ran across the following information at The American Cancer Societies web page. Two things that caught my attention were….
Oncoplastic surgery
Breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy or partial mastectomy) can often be used for early-stage breast cancers. But in some women, it can result in breasts of different sizes and/or shapes. For larger tumors, it might not even be possible, and a mastectomy might be needed instead. Some doctors address this problem by combining cancer surgery and plastic surgery techniques, known as oncoplastic surgery. This typically involves reshaping the breast at the time of the initial surgery, and may mean operating on the other breast as well to make them more symmetrical. This approach is still fairly new, and not all doctors are comfortable with it.
New chemotherapy drugs
Advanced breast cancers are often hard to treat, so researchers are always looking for newer drugs.
A drug class has been developed that targets cancers caused by BRCA mutations. This class of drugs is calledPARP inhibitors and they have shown promise in clinical trials treating breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers that had spread and were resistant to other treatments. Further studies are being done to see if this drug can help patients without BRCA mutations.
These are just two of the newest advances, there are many more mentioned on the page I linked to above. Check it out and ask your doctor questions about any treatment you read about. Remember, if one treatment doesn’t work the next one just might.
Keep fighting!
