Invasive ductal cancer, also called IDC, is the most common form of breast cancer, accounting for almost 80 percent of total breast cancer diagnoses, according to BreastCancer.org. IDC develops from the glandular ducts of the breast, the tubes that carry milk from the lobules to the nipple during lactation. It begins with the growth of a primary tumor within one duct of the breast, and develops when cancer cells begin to invade surrounding tissue and migrate into lymph nodes around the breast. In advanced stages, IDC can metastasize and spread to a number of distant organs throughout the body. There are a number of treatments to effectively remove or kill IDC cells and halt cancer progression.
Breast Cancer Surgery
The primary treatment for ductal carcinoma is a breast cancer surgery, which removes all or part of the affected breast. Earlier-stage ductal cancers with localized tumors may be treated with a lumpectomy, or breast-conserving surgery. During a lumpectomy, the surgeon removes the cancer cells as well as a margin of healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. The surgeon may also collect a number of small tissue samples, or biopsies, from tissue around the cancer to assess how invasive a tumor is. Larger or more invasive ductal cancers may require a breast-removal surgery or mastectomy to effectively remove the cancer. During a mastectomy, the surgeon removes the entire breast along with overlying skin and all or part of the underlying chest muscle. The surgeon may also remove a number of lymph nodes to check for spread of the ductal cancer.
Tamoxifen
One common treatment for IDC is tamoxifen, a hormone-based cancer therapy. Tamoxifen acts as an effective anti-cancer treatment for cancers containing cells that produce a protein called the estrogen receptor, or ER. Cancer cells containing ER protein react to circulating estrogen levels by proliferating, so the presence of estrogen helps drive tumor development. Tamoxifen works by preventing IDC cells from reacting to estrogen, so tamoxifen treatment slows cancer cell proliferation. The National Cancer Institute reports that tamoxifen acts as an effective breast cancer treatment for early-stage ductal cancers that have not yet spread as well as advanced metastatic cancers, and may also prevent breast cancer development in patients genetically predisposed to the disease.
Systemic Chemotherapy
Another treatment for invasive ductal cancer is systemic chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs prevent essential cellular progresses or destroy essential cellular compounds to prevent cells from growing and dividing. Chemotherapy drugs circulate throughout the body in the bloodstream, and they can target rapidly growing cells anywhere in the body. For this reason, chemotherapy is effective in treating advanced forms of ductal cancer that have metastasized--since the drugs circulate throughout the entire body they can target cancer cells growing within a number of organs simultaneously. Chemotherapy can also target any cancer cells remaining after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Since chemotherapy drugs target a number of cell types, breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy treatment often suffer from a number of side effects, such as hair loss or low blood cell counts.
