Cancer Treatment Options Forum - May 1st, 2010 - 6 Comments
Do you need to have Chemo for grade 1 breast cancer?
My friend who is 20 years old found out that she has a lump in her breast and she is getting a biposy.
breast cancer runs in the family but they said if she does have it they caught it really early?
so would she need chemo or just have it removed?
please answer im 16 i don’t really no what im talking about.
can someone please explain =[
thanks <3
Please research the use of Vitamin D in the treatment of breast cancer. This has been successful.
For more information, see "The China Study" book by Campbell.
The defination for Stage I Breast Cancer as per Oncological references is -
Stage and Grade are two different aspects of the disease.
I think you are refering Stage of the disease as Grade. Grade is to determain the speed or rate at which the cancer cells split and spread. In Grade I the spliting will be slow and however it is needed to be treated unless the grade will increase.
Stage I – Tumor no more than 2 centimeters (cm) in diameter; cancer has not spread to lymph nodes; has not spread to other areas of body. Five-year survival rate of stage 1 is 98 percent.
Irrespective of the Grade and stage or size of the tumor treatments viz. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are utilized for breast cancer. Depending on the stage, they will be used in different combinations or sequences to effect an appropriate strategy for the type and stage of the disease being treated. If the tumor is less than 4 cm (1.5 in) in size and located so that it can be removed without destroying the reasonable cosmetic appearance of the residual breast, just the primary tumor and a rim of normal tissue will be removed.
Over and above the removal by surgery it is very essential to have Chemotherapy also as it ensures killing of all cancerous cells by Chemo treatement. Only by administering Chemo drugs the cancerous cells can be killed and the multiplication curtailed.
However I suggest you to take treatments as suggested by your Oncologist without any fear. As I see it has been detected at an early stage the treatment and cure will be easy and hence you need not worry much. Best of luck -
If it’s malignant then they will probably have to do chemo. Malignant is a type of tumor that will grow and spread and so to stop it they kill the cells that are growing. If it is benign they will probably just remove it, but it depends on how big it is because sometimes they need to shrink it down before they can preform surgery. I would really talk to her about all this though if you want information. She probably needs someone to talk to who is not a member of her family and I’m guessing if you show genuine interest and concern she’d be willing to discuss it with you.
It depends how big it is but usually they will have to cut it out and then she would receive radiation to her breast if it is small enough and catch it early. (If she has radiation only she will still keep her hair fyi…)
However, since she is so young, it is likely related to the BRCA1 gene so she would be at a very high risk of getting breast cancer so they would probably do a prophylactic mastectomy on her and then she would be completely done. So they would take out a lot of her breast tissue so the cancer can’t come back. This does not require chemo or radiation because there would be no breast tissue for the tumor to spread to.
If they caught it early just make sure you are there to support your friend and help her when she feels like crap. Sounds like she has a great shot at a cure…. what she needs now is support and a friend….
take care, I hope its benign!
Even with a family history of breast cancer, breast cancer at her age is unlikely.
It is wise that she is getting a biopsy, but that is just like getting an injection – nothing major.
IF it turns out to be cancer then she could be having a lumpectomy (where they just remove the tumor and tissue around it) or a mastectomy (whee they remove the whole breast).
They would probably also do a sentinel node biopsy. This is where the lymph node closest to the cancer is removed and biopsied to check for spread.
If the sentinel node biopsy is clear, they may still do follow up chemo or radiation or both as a precaution.
If the sentinel node shows any spread – even at a microscopic level, then chemo and radiation would be likely.
The chances of her having breast cancer at that age are extremely low. While it’s good she’s getting it tested just in case, I wouldn’t worry. People who find their breast cancer early have a survival rate over 90%. She may need chemotherapy if the cancer is malignant, but she’ll be just fine. Here are links with more info on the subject…