Treatments for breast cancer
Your healthcare team will create a treatment plan just for you. The plan is based on your health and specific information about the cancer. What you want is also important when planning treatment. When deciding which treatments to offer for breast cancer, your healthcare team will consider:
- the stage
- if you have reached
menopause - the hormone receptor status of the cancer
- the HER2 status of the cancer
- the risk that the cancer will come back, or recur (for early-stage breast cancer)
- your overall health
Surgery is the main treatment for breast cancer. Other treatments are also used in combination to treat breast cancer, including radiation therapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
Risk of recurrence and drug treatment after surgery
Drug treatments offered after breast cancer surgery include hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. When your healthcare team is deciding which of these treatments should be offered, they look at the hormone receptor status and the HER2 status of the cancer. The hormone receptor status may be estrogen-receptor positive or negative (ER+ or ER-) and progesterone-receptor positive or negative (PR+ or PR-).
The following are possible combinations of hormone receptor status and HER2 status:
- ER+ or PR+ (or both) and HER2 positive
- ER+ or PR+ (or both) and HER2 negative
- ER- and PR- and HER2 positive
- ER- and PR- and HER2 negative (called triple negative)
| Luminal A | Luminal B | HER2 enriched | Triple negative or basal-like | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | ||||
| Estrogen or progesterone expression | Positive (strong) | Positive (variable) | Positive or negative | Negative |
| HER2 expression | Rare | Rare, though a small percentage may be positive | Common | Negative |
| Grade | Low to intermediate | Intermediate to high | Intermediate to high | High |
| Risk of recurrence | Low | Low to moderate | Moderate to high | High |
Gene expression profiling tests can help determine the risk that the breast cancer will come back and if chemotherapy or other treatments are needed to reduce the risk. These tests are a part of precision medicine, which is used to plan and offer treatment based on the genetic characteristics of the cancer. Different gene expression profiling tests for breast cancer are available in Canada, but the one that is most commonly used and funded by provincial or territorial health plans is Oncotype DX.
Treatments for ductal carcinoma in situ
Treatments for early-stage breast cancer
Treatments for locally advanced breast cancer
Treatments for metastatic breast cancer
Surgery for breast cancer
Radiation therapy for breast cancer
Chemotherapy for breast cancer
Hormone therapy for breast cancer
Targeted therapy for breast cancer
Immunotherapy for breast cancer
Follow-up after treatment for breast cancer
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Your donation to breast cancer this October will be matched! Help make a difference for the 1 in 8 Canadian women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Your donation will fund compassionate support programs to make life better for people facing breast cancer today and fund world-leading research to transform the future of breast cancer forever.