Breast Cancer Awareness month - Day 7
Day 7. How is metastatic breast cancer treated?
Depending primarily on the kind or subtype of mbc, patients may be on either targeted therapies or systemic chemotherapy. Radiation and surgery are also sometimes used.
Radiation and surgery haven't been offered in my case. I had a combination of targeted and systemic chemo for the first 15 months - tamoxifen orally (targeted) to suppress estrogen that my estrogen-positive cancer needed to grow and a chemical cocktail consisting of Navelbine and Doxorubicin by infusion (systemic) to go after the rapidly dividing cancer cells (and other cells that rapidly divided, like hair, thus thinning). That treatment plan lost effectiveness so the drugs changed to targeted only, and oral...no more injections! Femara and Ibrance are two pills that I take with my blood thinner (blood clots are a common side effect with most of these drugs). Treatment is a breeze right now and hopefully this will be effective for several years!
Depending primarily on the kind or subtype of mbc, patients may be on either targeted therapies or systemic chemotherapy. Radiation and surgery are also sometimes used.
Radiation and surgery haven't been offered in my case. I had a combination of targeted and systemic chemo for the first 15 months - tamoxifen orally (targeted) to suppress estrogen that my estrogen-positive cancer needed to grow and a chemical cocktail consisting of Navelbine and Doxorubicin by infusion (systemic) to go after the rapidly dividing cancer cells (and other cells that rapidly divided, like hair, thus thinning). That treatment plan lost effectiveness so the drugs changed to targeted only, and oral...no more injections! Femara and Ibrance are two pills that I take with my blood thinner (blood clots are a common side effect with most of these drugs). Treatment is a breeze right now and hopefully this will be effective for several years!
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