1. Why Breast Cancer in Stages?
Just so you know you are not stuck in the vast wilderness called cancer, experts have so organized the steps as to improve breast cancer management. It is expected to improve outcomes of the disease by guiding the way you treat the disease in a way other doctors and nurses can understand your situation. We kick off with Stage 0, non-invasive breast cancer that is still confined to the lobules and milk ducts. Drugs such as tamoxifen or procedures involving removal of the breast itself, or breast-conserving surgeries are possible options.
2. Cancer Cells Breaking Through
As the breast cancer starts to invade the surrounding tissue, the tumor can expand up to 2 cm. In this Stage 1, no lymph nodes are involved. Treatment involves breast conserving surgery or breast removal, preferably followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
3. Breast is Going Bust
It is now resembling a "weapon of mass destruction" as it grows between 2 and 5 cm or spreads to the lymph nodes under the arm. The surrounding tissues are still intact. Get ready for surgery and chemotherapy, hormone therapy based on your receptors and other antibody treatments.
4. All Set for Invasion
As the abnormal cells break loose, the surrounding areas ignite under the onslaught of the tumor--breast skin, chest wall or internal mammary lymph nodes. You can identify this stage by the sheer redness of the skin. Options include breast-conserving surgery with or without radiation, chemo, hormone and antibodies as needed, and will be explained to you by your physician.
5. Invasion is Complete
Stage 4 breast cancer is bad news: Lymph nodes located at the base of the neck, above the collarbone, and the disease has spread to lungs, liver, bone or brain. The more lymph nodes are involved, the more aggressive and devastating the disease is. A combination of therapies is attempted to address this late-stage breast cancer. Surgery and radiation will prove useless as a cure in most cases. However, it is possible to shrink or slow down the growth of advanced breast cancer for several years with a combination of therapies. Even so, it depends on the location of the cancer, your age, general health and willingness to go through the treatment. There is also the challenge of resistance against a given treatment regimen, so you might need another one under clinical trials. For example, a category called HER2-positive cancers that no longer respond to trastuzumab may respond to lapatinib, another drug that attacks the HER2 protein. And it is always used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs such as capecitabine. All this complicated story lends itself to one conclusion--early detection can lead to successful cure for breast cancer.
