Breast Cancer

Surgery is the first line of defense against most breast cancers. Each type of breast cancer must be evaluated in terms of its unique features to determine which surgery is the best option.

Northside Hospital is one of only a few hospitals in the country to develop dedicated, women-only breast care surgery suites, offering patients privacy and comfort.

Northside’s skilled surgeons perform a wide range of procedures including:

• Breast conserving surgery
• Mastectomy
• Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB)
• Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND)
• Breast reconstruction

FIND A BREAST CANCER SURGEON

Chemotherapy, or “chemo” uses medication to destroy cancer cells by stopping growth. For treatment of breast cancer, a doctor may recommend chemotherapy before surgery to shrink a tumor; after surgery to reduce the chance of it spreading; or as treatment for a cancer that has recurred.

At Northside's Infusion Centers, chemotherapy is provided on an outpatient basis by registered nurses who are certified in chemotherapy administration.

MEET OUR BREAST CANCER TEAM

Radiation therapy is a treatment that uses high energy X-rays or radiation to kill cancer cells. Radiation Therapy may be used before the surgery to shrink a tumor or after surgery to kill remaining cancerous cells. Computer-Assisted Detection (CAD) gives radiologists a “second set of eyes” by flagging areas of potential concern.

External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) / brachytherapy are the most common techniques for treating breast cancer with radiation therapy.

FIND A CANCER RADIATION ONCOLOGIST

Hormonal therapy is used to treat hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers in two ways:

• by lowering the amount of the hormone estrogen in the body
• by blocking the action of estrogen on breast cancer cells

Most of the estrogen in women's bodies is made by the ovaries. Estrogen makes hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers grow. Reducing the amount of estrogen or blocking its action can reduce the risk of early-stage hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers coming back (recurring) after surgery. Hormonal therapy medicines can also be used to help shrink or slow the growth of advanced-stage or metastatic hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers. Hormonal therapy medicines are NOT effective against hormone-receptor-negative breast cancers.

As researchers have learned more about changes in cancer cells that cause them to grow out of control, they have developed new types of drugs that target some of these cell changes. These targeted drugs are designed to block the growth and spread of cancer cells. These drugs work differently from chemotherapy drugs, which attack all cells that are growing quickly (including cancer cells).

Targeted therapy sometimes works even when chemotherapy does not. Some targeted drugs can help other types of treatment work better. Targeted drugs also tend to have different side effects than chemo.

Biological therapy, also called immunotherapy, uses the body’s immune system to treat cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapy that fight cancer cells directly, immunotherapy helps the immune system to fight cancer cells.

To date, there are several immunotherapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat breast cancer.

Learn more about our Immunotherapy Program.

Over the past 40 years, breast cancer treatment has greatly improved due to lessons learned through clinical trials. Clinical trials test the safety and benefits of new treatments, diagnosis methods and screening tests.

People who take part in cancer clinical trials have an opportunity to contribute to scientists’ knowledge of cancer and to help in the development of improved cancer treatments, while receiving state-of-the-art care from cancer experts.

It is important that patients have access to as many treatment options as possible. At Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, we participate in multiple breast cancer clinical trials, allowing our team of breast cancer specialists to offer patients more innovative treatment options across the care continuum. Clinical trials offer patients a potentially cutting-edge treatment option through a multi-disciplinary team approach. The clinical trials being conducted today may become the new standard of care in the coming years.

Learn more about Cancer Clinical Trials and Research at Northside Hospital.