2 Breast Cancer Hospitals In St Louis, Missouri

Breast Cancer (click for worldwide facilities list): Breast cancer is an uncontrolled growth of breast cells. The term, breast cancer, refers to a malignant tumor that has developed from cells in the breast. Usually breast cancer either begins in the cells of the lobules, which are the milk-producing glands, or the ducts, the passages that drain milk from the lobules to the nipple. Less commonly, breast cancer can begin in the stromal tissues, which include the fatty and fibrous connective tissues of the breast.

Over time, cancer cells can invade nearby healthy breast tissue and make their way into the underarm lymph nodes, small organs that filter out foreign substances in the body. If cancer cells get into the lymph nodes, they then have a pathway into other parts of the body. The breast cancer’s stage (Stage 0-Stage IV) refers to how far the cancer cells have spread beyond the original tumor.

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/what_is_bc.jsp

Treatments exist for every type and stage of breast cancer. Most women will have surgery and an additional (adjuvant) therapy such as radiation, chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Experimental treatments are also available at cancer treatment centers.

Today, radical mastectomy is rarely performed. Instead, the majority of women are candidates for simple mastectomy or lumpectomy. If you decide on mastectomy, you may opt for breast reconstruction.

Breast cancer operations include the following:

Lumpectomy. This operation saves as much of your breast as possible by removing only the lump plus a surrounding area of normal tissue. In general, lumpectomy is almost always followed by radiation therapy to destroy any remaining cancer cells.

Partial or segmental mastectomy. Another breast-sparing operation, partial mastectomy involves removing the tumor as well as some of the breast tissue around the tumor and the lining of the chest muscles that lie beneath. In almost all cases, you'll have a course of radiation therapy following your operation.

Simple mastectomy. During a simple mastectomy, your surgeon removes all your breast tissue — the lobules, ducts, fatty tissue and skin, including the nipple and areola. Depending on the results of the operation and follow-up tests, you may also need further treatment with radiation to the chest wall, chemotherapy or hormone therapy

Modified radical mastectomy. In this procedure, a surgeon removes your entire breast, including the overlying skin, and some underarm lymph nodes (axillary lymph node dissection), but leaves your chest muscles intact. This makes breast reconstruction less complicated.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy

Because breast cancer first spreads to the lymph nodes under the arm, all women with invasive cancer need to have these nodes examined. Rather than remove as many lymph nodes as possible, surgeons now focus on finding the sentinel nodes — the first nodes to receive the drainage from breast tumors and therefore the first place cancer cells will travel. If a sentinel node is removed, examined and found to be normal, the chance of finding cancer in any of the remaining nodes is small and no other nodes need to be removed.

Axillary lymph node dissection

If the sentinel lymph node does show the presence of cancer, then your surgeon removes additional lymph nodes in your armpit (axilla). The removal of these lymph nodes does increase the risk of serious arm swelling (lymphedema), but newer surgical techniques make this complication much less likely. Knowing if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes is important in determining the best course of treatment, including whether you'll need chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. It's administered by a radiation oncologist at a radiation center. In general, radiation is the standard of care following a lumpectomy for both invasive and noninvasive breast cancers. Oncologists are also likely to recommend radiation following a mastectomy for a large tumor, for inflammatory breast cancer, for cancer that has invaded the chest wall or for cancer that has spread to more than four lymph nodes in your armpit.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. The size of the tumor, characteristics of the cancer cells, and extent of spread of the cancer help determine your need for chemotherapy. If your cancer has a high chance of returning or spreading to another part of your body, your doctor may recommend chemotherapy after surgery to decrease the chance that the cancer will recur. This is known as adjuvant chemotherapy. If your cancer has already spread to other parts of your body, chemotherapy may be recommended to try to control the cancer and decrease any symptoms the cancer is causing.

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy — perhaps more properly termed hormone blocking therapy — is often used to treat women whose cancers are sensitive to hormones — estrogen and progesterone receptor positive cancers. Similar to chemotherapy, this form of therapy can be used to decrease the chance of your cancer returning. If the cancer has already spread, hormone therapy may shrink and control it.

Biological therapy

As scientists learn more about the differences between normal cells and cancer cells, treatments aimed at these differences — called biological therapy — are being developed

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer/DS00328