Stages of Breast Cancer

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors will first try to remove the tumor surgically if possible. If this is not possible, then they may use other methods to fight against the cancer cells. Breast cancer treatment Newport Beach-based begins with surgery, but the extent of surgery varies by type and stage of breast cancer. Here are the main stages of breast cancer:

Stage 0

If it is caught early enough, breast cancer may be treated with a lumpectomy. Also known as a partial mastectomy or wide local excision. This involves surgically removing only the lump of breast tissue affected by the disease. The amount removed can range from two to ten lymph nodes depending on how large it has grown.

Stage I-III

A modified radical mastectomy will usually need to be performed at this time; also called a simple mastectomy, this procedure removes all breast tissue, including skin and nipple and stretches of skin around the area where there is no tumor present. Removing healthy tissue simplifies the operation and reduces damage to surrounding tissues. For a nipple, an additional skin graft is needed from another part of the body or a donor.

Stage IV

Women with stage IV breast cancer usually have chemotherapy immediately after diagnosis to shrink their tumor before surgery. Chemotherapy can be given via intra-arterial infusion when medication is injected into the artery that feeds the tumor in your arm or leg.

This ensures that more medication reaches your system than when you are given intravenous infusions where medications are directly infused into blood vessels. Sometimes radiation therapy is also required following mastectomy when chemotherapy alone doesn’t work.

Stage V

Almost 75% of people diagnosed with metastatic tumors will die within five years of their diagnosis. Stage V tumors typically begin to spread to other parts of the body like the spine or brain, where they can cause paralysis or seizures.

Even though this type of treatment is not available for everyone, doctors can give targeted radiation therapy directly to specific parts of your body to slow down tumor growth. This procedure is called radiosurgery when you are given focused radiation rays or external beam radiotherapy when you are given a larger dose of radiation dispersed over an area.