Treatments
Treatment options depend on factors such as the patient’s age, stage of the cancer, prognosis and receptor status. Surgery and/or radiotherapy are the principal ways of removing a tumour mass, while drug therapy can be used:15,16,17
- after surgery (adjuvant) to reduce the risk of recurrence or spread of invasive carcinoma
- before surgery (neoadjuvant) to reduce the size of the tumour with the aim of allowing breast-conserving surgery or to reduce the extent of lymph node involvement
- prophylactically in women at moderate to high risk of breast cancer.
Drug therapy can include:15
- chemotherapy – anthracyclines (epirubicin, doxorubicin), taxanes (docetaxel, paclitaxel), fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, platinum-containing compounds, or other antineoplastics (eribulin)
- biological or targeted therapy – MABs (trastuzumab, pertuzumab), TKIs (neratinib, tucatinib), and other protein kinase inhibitors (everolimus, ribociclib or abemaciclib)
- endocrine therapy – tamoxifen, raloxifene, fulvestrant, aromatase inhibitors (anastrazole, letrozole or exemestane), ovarian function suppressors (goserelin)
- bisphosphonates – zoledronic acid, sodium clodronate.