Breast cancer is a form of cancer which generally occurs in the case of females but many men too suffer from this disease. The best way to treat male breast cancer is by giving Chemotherapy treatment.
Chemotherapy or chemo is a treatment method in which cancer fighting drugs are either injected or given orally to the person suffering from cancer.
These drugs then travel through the bloodstream to reach the cancer cells. Chemotherapy is given in cycles and between each cycle, a recovery period is granted. The following are some more details about chemotherapy for male breast cancer.
Types of Chemotherapy for male breast cancer treatment:
- Adjuvant chemotherapy-adjuvant chemotherapy is a type of a chemo method which is given to patients who are left with no evidence of cancer after the surgery is performed.
This method ensures that no cancer cells are left and is done to lower down the risk of breast cancer in the future. In the case of male breast cancer, in early stages, some cancer cells may break and move away from the primary breast tumor.
These cells may enter the bloodstream and may be left undetected. In such a scenario, adjuvant chemotherapy proves to be very helpful. - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy-this is a form of chemotherapy which is given before the surgery is performed on the male with breast cancer.
This method also uses the same chemo as the adjuvant chemo but in this method, drugs given to the patient increase his chance of survival by lowering the chance that the cancer will regrow.
The main benefit and advantage of this particular chemo for breast cancer in males is that it shrinks the large cancers so that during the surgery, they can be easily removed. - Chemotherapy for advanced male breast cancer-in some men, the breast cancer may spread beyond the breasts and the underarm area to other parts of the body.
The length of this treatment may be different from the above given methods as it may depend upon whether or not the cancer shrinks, how much it shrinks and how nicely the male is able to tolerate the treatment.
Chemotherapy for male breast cancer is given in different combinations of drugs. Some doctors may prefer giving chemo for metastatic breast cancer one drug at a given time but some may even prefer combination of drugs. This decision totally depends upon how aggressively the cancer cells are growing and spreading.