Metastatic breast cancer treatment

Being told you have metastatic (stage IV) breast cancer is a lot to take in. It means your cancer has spread to other parts of your body. Although there is no cure, your doctor has ways to slow. Some women have metastatic breast cancer when first diagnosed with breast cancer (about percent of diagnoses in the U.S.).

This is called de novo metastatic breast cancer.

Most often, metastatic breast cancer arises years after a person has completed treatment for early or locally advanced breast cancer. Women with stage IV breast cancer are most often treated with systemic therapy. This may include hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or some combination of these.

Local treatments such as surgery or radiation might sometimes be used to help prevent or treat symptoms. Learn more about metastatic breast cancer symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Breast cancer treatment research is ongoing and always improving the lives of those living with the condition.

The best approach to treating metastatic breast cancer depends on your situation, your preferences, and the specific characteristics of your cancer.

Metastases from breast cancer may be found in lymph nodes in the armpit, or they can travel anywhere in the body. Common sites include distant organs like the lung, liver, bone and brain. Most treatment decisions depend on where the cancer has come back, the characteristics of the cancer , and which treatments you have had before. Many different treatments can help if your cancer has spread to bone, commonly called bone metastasis or bone mets. MBC process is a complex multistep process that includes many steps of dynamic interactions between cells of the tumor and the host resulting in leaving of tumor cells from their primary site and metastasis to a distant area.

Before talking about all of the specific treatments which you may choose for metastatic breast cancer , it helps to talk about the types of treatments, the goals of treatment , and what particular treatments are often used first to address metastatic cancer. Find out about prognosis and life expectancy at this stage. The cancer has spread to other parts of the body. This usually includes the lungs, liver, bones or brain. For the treatment of metastatic breast cancer , aromatase inhibitors are being tested in clinical trials to compare them to hormone therapy with tamoxifen.

In women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer , at least years of adjuvant hormone therapy reduces the risk that the cancer will recur (come back). There is no stage after IV. Stage cancer means that the cancer is limited to the inside of the milk duct and is a non-invasive cancer.

The treatments for this non-invasive breast tumor are often different from the treatment of invasive breast cancer. A range of different treatments are available for metastatic breast cancer.

Treatments that may be suitable for one woman may not be suitable for another. It may be that several different treatments are tried before finding one that the cancer responds to. Stage breast cancer is often diagnosed when the cancer recurs, although it may sometime be discovered at the initial diagnosis. While metastatic breast cancer is not curable, treatment can help control the spread of malignancy and promote a good quality of life.

The ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines on Breast Cancer cover primary breast cancer and include information on staging and diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Treatment approaches for metastatic breast cancer are individualize taking into consideration its specific type, the parts of the body where it has sprea and the preferences of the patient. Hormone therapy is commonly the first treatment approach for hormone-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Many new treatments for metastatic breast cancer are under study and treatment is improving. Findings from clinical trials will determine whether or not new treatments will become a part of standard care for metastatic breast cancer. The end-of-life symptoms associated with metastatic breast cancer depend on where a person’s cancer has spread to, and they can include both physical and mental issues. What is the treatment for metastatic breast cancer ? Verzenio is a prescription medicine used to treat a type of breast cancer. For example, breast cancer that spreads to the lung is called metastatic breast cancer , not lung cancer.

It is treated as stage IV breast cancer , not as lung cancer. Sometimes when people are diagnosed with metastatic cancer , doctors cannot tell where it started. Metastatic cancer has the same name as the primary cancer. Use the menu below to choose the Introduction section to get started. Or, you can choose another section to learn more about a specific question you have.

Each guide is reviewed by experts on the Cancer. Net Editorial Boar which is. Trastuzumab (Herceptin, Herzuma, Ogivri, Ontruzant).

For metastatic breast cancer , trastuzumab can be given in combination with different types of chemotherapy or with hormonal therapy.