TREATMENTS FOR BREAST CANCER

by CAROL SCHNEIDER

s you may or may not realize, October is Breast

Cancer Awareness Month. Last week, we printed an article on Breast Cancer in general, so this week we thought that since treatments is an important part of Breast Cancer I’ll dedicate this week to it. There are four effective ways of treating Breast Cancer. These may be used singularly or in combination depending on the circumstances. These treatments are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonetherapy.

Surgery, the most commonly used and most effective treat- ment, can range from lump removal to a ‘‘radical mastec- tomy’’. The radical mastectomy is the removal of the entire breast, the muscles of the chest wall beneath the breast, and the fatty and lymphoid tissue of the armpits. These are becoming increasingly rare as early detection and alternate treatment methods make things easier.

Radiation therapy is used in three situations. First situation involves early cancers. In the case of most early cancers, radiation of the breast is used with lumpectomy. Secondly, in larger, localized cancers, the armpit, chest wall and breast may be treated with radiation after surgery. Finally, in the case of spreading cancers radiation may be used to keep it contained. Radiation treatment is used to destroy cancer cells, but it may damage normal cells in the area as well.

Chemotherapy is used in two places, where more than one tumour is known to exist and situations where although the cancer is localized, chemotherapy is used with the primary treatment. Chemotherapy has many side-effects including nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, sore mouth, susceptibility to infections, anaemia, reduced blood clotting and hair loss. But there are drugs to counteract most of these side-effects, and they all disappear when chemotherapy is discontinued.

The final form of treatment is hormone therapy. Hormonal therapy is used to suppress the growth of tumours by reduc- ing the level of appropriate hormones in the body. Tumour

suppression can also be accomplished by raising the level of :

certain hormones. Both of these can be achieved through drugs that either counteract the hormones or contain extra

Campus Women —

hormones. This is the most complex type of therapy since it is dependant on many factors. Once cancer has been treated, a woman can often return to a fairly normal life. There are few real risks of any permanent ill effects with these treat- ments.

The traumatic nature of not only treatment but of just coping with cancer is the hardest part of getting back into life. Hi