• Surgery: This is usually the first line of attack against breast cancer. Decisions about surgery depend on many factors. Your doctor is the best person who can determine the kind of surgery that is most appropriate based on the stage of the cancer and the type of cancer. Preserving the breast is possible in selective cases.

• Radiation Therapy (Radiotherapy): This is a highly targeted, highly effective way to destroy cancer cells in the breast that may be present even after surgery. Radiation can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence by about 70%. Despite what many people fear, radiation therapy is relatively easy to tolerate, and its side effects are limited only to the treated area.

• Anti-estrogen drugs: These are consumed in the form of tablets. They are used to decrease the chance of recurrence in hormone-responsive cancer.

• Targeted Therapy: This therapy includes injections that are targeted against cancer cells that express CERB2 Antigen and help in selectively destroying those cells.

• Chemotherapy: Often called ‘chemo,’ is a systemic therapy, which means the cancer medicines are injected in the blood to reach the whole body through the bloodstream. These medicines weaken and destroy cancer cells in the body, including the cells present at the original cancer site and any cancer cells that may have spread to another part of the body.

Chemotherapy is used:

• To treat early-stage invasive breast cancer to get rid of any cancer cells that may be left behind after surgery and to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.
• To treat advanced-stage breast cancer and destroy/damage the cancer cells as much as possible.
• In some cases, chemotherapy is given before surgery to shrink the cancer so that less tissue has to be removed. When chemotherapy is given before surgery, it is called ‘neo-adjuvant’ chemotherapy.