Overview of Breast Cancer Therapy

Breast cancer treatment is multidisciplinary. Most women with early-stage breast cancer are candidates for breast-conserving surgery with radiotherapy or mastectomy. The risk of local recurrence and the chance of survival do not differ with these approaches. Sentinel node biopsy is used for axillary staging, and individualized approaches are minimizing the need for axillary dissection in women with positive sentinel nodes. Adjuvant systemic therapy is used in most women based on proven survival benefit, and molecular profiling to individualize treatment based on risk is now a clinical reality for patients with hormone receptor-positive cancers.