Metastatic Breast Cancer

Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer

The treatment you receive for metastatic disease may be similar to the treatment you received for your primary cancer: It may include surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation—or a combination of these treatments.

It may include targeted therapies, such as Herceptin. It may also include the drug Avastin, a new drug which is showing promise for women with metastatic breast cancer when combined with Taxol, an older chemotherapy drug.

Your treatment will depend on a number of factors, including the type of treatment you have received in the past, and the symptoms you are experiencing with the new cancer.

The treatment for women who have a distant recurrence in organs such as the lungs, brain, or bones is the same as for women whose cancer is diagnosed as stage IV (and involves those organs) at the time of initial diagnosis.

Expect your doctor to offer you systemic treatment, with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or both. For women whose cancer cells have high levels of the HER2 protein, immunotherapy with Herceptin, alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy, is an option.

You may also need radiation or surgery to treat symptoms of your disease. Radiation therapy can be used to shrink tumors in the brain or in the bones. Bone metastases may also be treated with bisphosphonates, drugs that help prevent the breakdown of bone and may also prevent bone metastases in breast cancer patients.

Ask your doctor about taking part in clinical trials of promising treatments for metastatic disease.

Some women find that their treatment for metastatic disease is easier to tolerate than the chemotherapy they received during their first bout with breast cancer. The emotional aspects of coping with advanced breast cancer may be more demanding than the medical treatment. SCCA has resources such as support groups, social workers, and pastors, who are trained to provide the support you may need.

August 2007