What is the treatment for metastatic breast cancer?

If you have metastatic breast cancer that means your cancer is spreading from your breast and lymph nodes to other parts of your body. Organs most commonly affected include the lungs, liver, bones and/or brain. This type of breast cancer is also referred to as stage IV breast cancer.

Generally, breast cancer spreads after the disease presents itself once and your doctors attempt to treat it with surgery or other therapies. The cancer returns as a distant recurrence, meaning the cancer reappears but in a different part of the body. Unfortunately, there is no direct cure for metastatic breast cancer. The cancer must be managed as a chronic disease.

Treatment options for metastatic breast cancer can include:

• Chemotherapy - These are drugs your doctor administers either before or after surgery to help treat your cancer.
• Radiation - Radiation uses high-energy rays (such as X-rays) to kill cancer cells or shrink tumors. Most commonly, doctors use radiation therapy to kill any cancer cells that remain in the breast, chest wall or underarm area after surgery.
• Hormonal Therapy- Receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone can affect breast cancer cell growth. Hormonal therapy helps block the ability of estrogen from reaching a breast cancer cell. These drugs help reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring or possibly continuing to grow. If you have stage IV breast cancer that is hormone receptor positive, hormonal therapy may be your first line of defense against the disease. If the drugs keep the cancer from progressing, you may continue to take them for some time. If the drugs cannot keep your cancer from progressing, your doctor may try different hormonal therapy drugs, or a different treatment option.
• Biologic targeted therapy - Biologic targeted therapy is a category of drugs that may be able to change the behavior of the breast cancer cell to help stem the spread of your cancer.
• Breast surgery - Lumpectomy surgery, which removes cancer from inside your breast, or a mastectomy, which surgically removes the entire breast, are both controversial therapy options for metastatic cancer. In most cases, the discovery of the cancer having spread is learned after the breast cancer surgery is performed. If it is discovered prior to the surgery, usually no surgery is performed and the cancer is treated with medications instead.