Breast Cancer: Treatment Flashcards
What is the typical treatment strategy for all breast cancers?
1) Chemo/Radiation
2) Surgery
3) Chemo/Radiation
What are the two types of breast cancer surgeries?
1) Lumpectomy
2) Mastectomy
Which surgery preserves the majority of the breast?
Lumpectomy
Which surgery removes all of the breast, but not the pectoral muscles or chest lining?
Mastectomy
Which surgeon invented the radical mastectomy?
William Halstead
Who convinced cancer surgeons to enroll their patients in clinical trials to compare the efficacy of the radical mastectomy to lumpectomies, and thereby ended the radical mastectomy?
Bernard Fisher
How does the tumor leave the breast and metastasize?
By way of the lymph nodes
What is the first lymph node that the breast drains into and which is always removed in a breast cancer surgery?
The sentinel lymph node
True or false: If the sentinel lymph node is normal, the tumor has likely not metastasized.
True
Which formations in normal breast are often mistaken for breast cancer in mammograms and MRI’s?
Calcifications
What is the most powerful tool for diagnosing breast cancer?
PET scan
What is a pathologist looking for to determine that a breast cancer surgery removed all cancer?
Clean margins (or negative margins)
Which type of breast cancer is treated with the targeted therapy Herceptin?
HER2+
What enzyme stimulates o-estrogen production?
Aromatase
What treatment starves tumors of estrogen while keeping the ovaries?
Aromatase Inhibitors
What type of therapy is used after the primary treatment (surgery) to prevent the cancer from returning?
Adjuvant therapy
What type of therapy is used before the primary treatment (surgery) to shrink the tumor?
Neoadjuvant therapy
Which researcher discovered the link between HER2 amplification and some breast cancers?
Dennis Slamon
Which drug company developed Herceptin?
Genentech
Which drug used to be used to treat ER+ breast cancer by inducing menopause, but still allowed for weak activation of the estrogen receptor?
Tamoxifen
What is the treatment protocol for a woman with ER+ breast cancer?
1) Neoadjuvant: aromatase inhibitors
2) Surgery
3) Chemo/Radiation
What is the neoadjuvant relapse treatment protocol of an ER+ woman whose breast cancer has mutated to allow the tumor to no longer need estrogen?
PI3K inhibitors
True or false: Most women with ER+ breast cancer require a mastectomy.
False
