Breast cancer develops by stages and the most effective way to combat the disease is breast cancer treatment by stage. Although different doctors have different views when it comes to treating breast cancer with some going for quality and others for quantity when it comes to the number of days a patient has left, stage treatment solves both problems. Cancer has four stages, with stage one being the stage when the cancer is still small and it has not spread to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body. The best way to treat cancer at this stage is to do local therapy, which also goes by the names breast-conserving surgery, lumpectomy and partial mastectomy, or to do a modified radical mastectomy. Cancer becomes dangerous when it spreads to the lymph nodes and so they have to be evaluated through a sentinel lymph node biopsy. Another option is adjuvant hormone or systemic therapy – this is used for women with hormone receptors or positive breast cancer, and it is used mostly when the breast cancer tumor is too small for local therapy.

The second stage of breast cancer is when the cancer tumor is large and/or when the cancerous cells have already spread to the lymph nodes. The treatment for breast cancer available in this stage is local therapy, just like in stage one, where surgery to remove the tumor is done and radiation is used to kill any remaining cells. Another of the breast cancer treatments is adjuvant systemic therapy which involves hormone therapy just like in stage one, with either or both chemotherapy and trastuzumab. Another option that is applicable to women who want breast-conserving therapy, but have tumors larger than 2 cm is to have neoadjuvant to shrink the tumor before hormone therapy and/or trastuzumab or chemo.

The third stage is where the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes and the realistic chances of killing all the cancerous cells are almost zero. However, some people have recovered from stage three cancers with the right treatment. Here, breast cancer stage treatment involves surgery, which is followed by adjuvant systemic chemotherapy and then hormone therapy and/or trastuzumab.

In the fourth stage, it is impossible to get rid of the cancerous cells because they will have spread to the rest of the body and treatment of breast cancer here is to contain the cancer and to prolong a patient’s life. Drugs to block new tumor blood vessel growth are used.

The disease can be treated by new methods that are available today, but that are yet to find global acceptance. These methods are effective and less painful than traditional methods – an example of this is regional chemotherapy. Before breast cancer treatment can begin, it is important that the doctor know all pre-existing conditions to prevent further complications.