Breast Cancer: Treatment

Question 1

What is the typical treatment strategy for all breast cancers?

Answer 1

1) Chemo/Radiation
2) Surgery
3) Chemo/Radiation

Question 2

What are the two types of breast cancer surgeries?

Answer 2

1) Lumpectomy

2) Mastectomy

Question 3

Which surgery preserves the majority of the breast?

Answer 3

Lumpectomy

Question 4

Which surgery removes all of the breast, but not the pectoral muscles or chest lining?

Answer 4

Mastectomy

Question 5

Which surgeon invented the radical mastectomy?

Answer 5

William Halstead

Question 6

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?

Answer 6

Bernard Fisher

Question 7

How does the tumor leave the breast and metastasize?

Answer 7

By way of the lymph nodes

Question 8

What is the first lymph node that the breast drains into and which is always removed in a breast cancer surgery?

Answer 8

The sentinel lymph node

Question 9

True or false: If the sentinel lymph node is normal, the tumor has likely not metastasized.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Which formations in normal breast are often mistaken for breast cancer in mammograms and MRI’s?

Answer 10

Calcifications

Question 11

What is the most powerful tool for diagnosing breast cancer?

Answer 11

PET scan

Question 12

What is a pathologist looking for to determine that a breast cancer surgery removed all cancer?

Answer 12

Clean margins (or negative margins)

Question 13

Which type of breast cancer is treated with the targeted therapy Herceptin?

Answer 13

HER2+

Question 14

What enzyme stimulates o-estrogen production?

Answer 14

Aromatase

Question 15

What treatment starves tumors of estrogen while keeping the ovaries?

Answer 15

Aromatase Inhibitors

Question 16

What type of therapy is used after the primary treatment (surgery) to prevent the cancer from returning?

Answer 16

Adjuvant therapy

Question 17

What type of therapy is used before the primary treatment (surgery) to shrink the tumor?

Answer 17

Neoadjuvant therapy

Question 18

Which researcher discovered the link between HER2 amplification and some breast cancers?

Answer 18

Dennis Slamon

Question 19

Which drug company developed Herceptin?

Answer 19

Genentech

Question 20

Which drug used to be used to treat ER+ breast cancer by inducing menopause, but still allowed for weak activation of the estrogen receptor?

Answer 20

Tamoxifen

Question 21

What is the treatment protocol for a woman with ER+ breast cancer?

Answer 21

1) Neoadjuvant: aromatase inhibitors
2) Surgery
3) Chemo/Radiation

Question 22

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?

Answer 22

PI3K inhibitors

Question 23

True or false: Most women with ER+ breast cancer require a mastectomy.

Answer 23

False