Introduction
For patients with breast cancer, there are various treatment options. The type of therapy or combination of several forms of therapy best suited to the patient varies greatly and must be determined individually for each case. In principle stand: Which therapy the doctor will choose depends on various factors, including the age of the woman and whether she has already had her last menstruation or not, the size of the tumour, certain tissue characteristics of the tumour, the extent of metastasis (spread) of the tumour and the hormone receptor status. . – Chemotherapy
- Irradiation
- Hormone therapy and/or
- A surgery available.
Types of chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is used in two different ways. Either as part of a so-called adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy. Adjuvant means that a primary therapy is given first, usually an operation, followed by chemotherapy to prevent recurrence.
In neoadjuvant therapy, chemotherapy is carried out first to reduce the size of the tumour in order to have better chances with the actual therapy, i.e. surgery. Chemotherapy before the operation is only carried out in certain cases. This is called “neoadjuvant chemotherapy”.
The aim here is also to cure the body of cancer. In these cases, however, the tumour is of such a nature or so large that an operation with complete removal is not directly possible. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is therefore designed to attack and shrink the tumour so that the operation can be performed more easily.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can also be useful for patients who wish to preserve their breasts. Here the tumour can be shrunk before the operation so that the complete removal of the breast is no longer necessary. At the same time, it has been shown that neoadjuvant chemotherapy reduces the risk of relapse after the operation.
Chemo before the operation can eliminate small affected cells before they spread further. The procedure is similar to chemotherapy after the operation. Here, too, several chemotherapeutic agents are combined, which are administered in different cycles with breaks.
Chemotherapy after surgery is also known as “adjuvant chemotherapy”. Adjuvant means “supportive”. After a successful operation, it is used to detect and fight any remaining cancer cells that have remained unnoticed in the body.
Even if the tumour has been completely removed for the human eye, individual affected cells remain locally in the tissue, lymphatic system or body circulation and can settle and form metastases (daughter tumours). Chemotherapy combats these remaining cells throughout the body as best it can, thereby significantly increasing the statistical probability of survival. At the beginning of chemotherapy, the tumour cells must be analysed in detail in order to find the most suitable remedy against them and spare the remaining body cells. Since some of the chemotherapeutic drugs are always used against healthy cells of the body, the typical side effects of chemotherapy occur. Several studies have shown that the risk of relapse can be considerably reduced by adjuvant chemotherapy.
