Breast Cancer Medications: Their Uses and Functions in Breast Cancer Treatments

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on breast cancer research annually. When this kind of intensive effort is dedicated to finding treatments or cures for one disease, even if the ultimate answer proves elusive it is almost inevitable that researchers will deepen their understanding of that disease significantly and in important ways. That increased understanding in many cases will allow medical scientists and doctors to create customized treatments based on the particular characteristics of the disease they are studying, and in the case of breast cancer this has primarily meant the approval and release of numerous prescription medications that have been found to have positive effects when used against cancer cells associated with breast tumors.

Chemotherapy
Most drugs that have been approved for breast cancer treatment are used in chemotherapy, which is one of the triumvirate of treatments that are normally prescribed when breast cancer has been diagnosed (radiation therapy and mastectomy/lumpectomy surgery are the other two staples of breast cancer treatment). Chemotherapy drugs are used to essentially poison cancer cells so they will stop growing and begin to shrink. These drugs may or may not be sufficient to kill all the cancer cells in a person's body, but they are effective in stopping the spread of cells once a tumor has metastasized (moved into other parts of the body), and they can help contain and reduce cancerous tumors in the breast and make it easier for them to be surgically removed.

When chemo drugs are given to patients before breast cancer surgery, this is referred to as neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This kind of treatment is generally administered in two to four week cycles, followed by time off to let the body recover from the side effects of these powerful substances. Once doctors are satisfied with the amount of shrinkage that has occurred as a result of neoadjuvant treatments, lumpectomy surgery will then be scheduled. Without the use of chemotherapy to help reduce the size of breast cancer tumors, many women would have no choice but to have a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy, so the primary purpose of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is to give women another option to total removal of the breast.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is administered after breast cancer surgery to eliminate any cancer cells that doctors might have missed. These may include stray cancer cells that are still lingering in the breast following a lumpectomy, or cancerous cells that have spread to other parts of the body following a mastectomy if the cancer has metastasized. Because of their toxic characteristics, chemotherapy drugs can be very effective against cancer cells no matter where they might be located. Once cancer has begun to affect the human organism, it can be very hard to get rid of, as cells can basically go into hiding and wait for their chance to begin growing again either in the area of the breast or somewhere else completely. This is why adjuvant chemotherapy is sometimes used for up to six months after breast cancer surgery has been performed.