Adjuvant Chemotherapy
Adjuvant chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs to kill cancer cells that may be present in the body but outside of the breast. It is given after surgery and the duration of treatment, types of drugs selected and interval between treatments will be determined by several factors.
When breast cancer cells have spread to the lymph nodes under the arm, chemotherapy is offered to treat the cancer. They may be given through the vein or occasionally just by mouth. Factors such as age, underlying medical conditions and tumor biology are used to create your treatment plan.
The use of chemotherapy in node negative patients will be determined by your age at diagnosis, stage of the cancer, tumor markers, tumor biology and future risk of systemic recurrence. (These findings do not apply to women with pre-invasive or in-situ breast cancer).
For years, women whose underarm lymph nodes were free of cancer usually received no additional therapy because they have a relatively good chance of surviving the disease after primary treatment. However, scientists know that cancer may return in about 30% of these women. Adjuvant therapy can potentially prevent or delay the return of cancer.
The type of chemotherapy and duration of chemotherapy are determined by your health care team and there are many factors that they will take into consideration.
Stage (size of the tumor, lymph node involvement, spread to other body regions)
Grade ( aggressiveness of the tumor),
Prognostic indicators ( whether your tumor expresses estrogen and progesterone sensitivity)
Her 2 neu over expression (A sign of aggressiveness of the tumor)
Tumors that are referred to as estrogen receptor positive of ER+, that have no evidence of spread to the lymph nodes, can be evaluated by a genomic (genetic footprint) test that can help us determine what patients may benefit from chemotherapy
