Breast Cancer Stage 1

Later than breast cancer has been made a diagnosis; tests are completed to discover if cancer cells have extended in the breast or to other parts of the body.

The procedure employed to detect whether the cancer has extended in the breast or to other parts of the body is named staging. The report collected from the staging procedure settles on the stage of the disease. It is significant to be acquainted with the stage so as to plan treatment.

Stage 1 illustrates invasive breast cancer (cancer cells are breaking through to or invading neighboring normal tissue) in which:
- the tumor measures up to 2 centimeters, AND
- no lymph nodes are involved

Stage 1 cancers could be dealt with either breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy, partial mastectomy) or modified radical mastectomy. The lymph nodes will require to be assessed as well, with a sentinel lymph node biopsy or an axillary lymph node analysis. Breast reconstruction could be completed either at the same time as surgery or later on.

This is an extremely early stage of the disease. The cancer hasn't extended outside the breast in any way. Therefore you have many good treatments to decide from. The five-year survival rate for women with stage 1 breast cancer is approximately 98%. This doesn't indicate that these women will simply be alive five years. Doctors presently assess success rates for cancer treatment by observing how women are doing five years after treatment. Women typically do well with a mixture of treatments.

Here are your essential alternatives:

- Surgery is a standard. Because the tumor is still small, you might get a lumpectomy. In this process, just the tumor and a number of the nearby tissue are removed.

- Radiation therapy is standard subsequent to a lumpectomy. It could put an end to any cancer cells that were overlooked. Women with stage 1 cancer who get a mastectomy don't typically require radiation.

- Chemotherapy is treatment with drugs that assault cancer cells. It's frequently employed later than surgery to lower the risk of the cancer returning.

- Hormone therapy is sometimes utilized following surgery in women who have hormone receptor-positive cancer (tumors whose development seems dependant on estrogen).

- Biological therapy is a latest method. In roughly 25% of women with breast cancer, a surplus of a protein recognized as HER2 makes the cancer extend rapidly. Herceptin is a new drug that's been accepted to treat women with metastatic breast cancer that is HER2-positive.

- Clinical trials are open to lots of women with stage 1 cancer. A clinical trial might let you get into cutting-edge treatments.

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