Contents:
- Medical Video: HER2-Positive Breast Cancer—Reduce Your Risk of Recurrence
- What is ER + cancer?
- Treatment for ER + cancer
- Types of drugs
Medical Video: HER2-Positive Breast Cancer—Reduce Your Risk of Recurrence
ER breast cancer occurs when cells have receptors that inform cancer to estrogen. ER breast cancer needs to be studied to find out the types of cancer and how this cancer can grow.
A new diagnosis of breast cancer shows that cancer has several types. Learning the types of breast cancer can help patients to know and understand various types of treatment, life expectancy, and so forth.
Each type of breast cancer has a different effect, so this knowledge is very important to determine which type of treatment is suitable for breast cancer sufferers.
When cancer is biopsied after removal from the body, the doctor or pathologist will check these cells to find out the type of cancer. Patients can also ask for notes to find out the results. Each report will show results that match the data from the body that has been examined. ER (+) is one of the most common types of breast cancer in patients with cancer.
What is ER + cancer?
ER breast cancer shows that a woman has receptor tumor cells that inform cancer to estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone that is naturally produced by the body. An important strategy to prevent ER + cancer from returning is by blocking the passage of estrogen into cells.
Two of the three cases of breast cancer occur due to the work of hormones in the body. Most ER + cancers are PR +, which means that the growth is responded to in the progesterone hormone.
The study of cancer says that ER + breast cancer has the best life expectancy in all types of breast cancer and is able to respond well to treatment. All breast cancer cases have the potential to be able to re-attack the body even though the treatment period is over. Therefore, there will usually be other treatments to prevent the cancer from coming back.
Treatment for ER + cancer
Initial treatment is done in the same way as treatment for other types of breast cancer. Lumpectomy or mastectomy is performed to remove the tumor. Chemotherapy and radiation will usually be done after surgery to remove the tumor.
After the tumor is removed and the treatment is complete, the patient will be given an antihomonal drug to prevent the cancer from returning. These drugs are usually allowed to be taken home and are recommended for consumption for five years. However, the Lancet study stated that administration of drugs should be given for ten years to reduce the possibility of the cancer coming back again.
Types of drugs
There are two types of anti-estrogen drugs and each type has a different function in preventing cancer. The first way is to block estrogen from stimulating breast cancer cells, and the second way is to stop the body from producing estrogen.
Tamoxifen
Tamoxifen is given to pre-menopausal women by blocking receptors on breast cancer cells. Although there are side effects from tamoxifen treatment, the administration of the tamoxifen drug within 30 years is more included in the safe category given to patients. The most common side effects on tamoxifen treatment are mood changes, pain in the bones, dryness of the female area, and feeling of heat in the body. Consult your doctor if you are taking unusual symptoms of tamoxifen.
Aromatase inhibitors
This type of aromatase inhibitor treatment is given to women who have undergone menopause. This drug serves to stop the body from producing estrogen. The types of drugs commonly used in aromatase inhibitors are letrozole (Femara), anastrozole (Arimidex), and exemestane (Aromasin). These types of drugs can cause bone and joint pain but do not cause clots or uterine thickening.
Ovarian oblation
Another treatment option for breast cancer is ovarian oblation. This treatment is done by giving medication to patients, such as leuprorelin (Lupron) and radio therapy. Surgery or oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and causes serious and permanent effects on women. Therefore, oophorectomy must be carefully considered first.
Ovarian oblation including the type of treatment that is often performed on women in patients with metastatic cancer or have the BCRA gene. This treatment is still being studied as a cancer treatment for the early stages.
Estrogen blockers and metastatic cancer
Estrogen which blocks the path of cancer cells becomes very effective in controlling ER + metastatic cancer. Many people believe that there really isn't the most effective treatment, but some other treatments may be more effective as chemotherapy as blocking the path of cancer cells. The blocking of cancer cells is likely to have more side effects than chemotherapy, but this treatment is a viable treatment to consider when the patient has a recurrent cancer (relapse) or metastasis.
