There are different groups of drugs given in different ways for breast cancer. Chemotherapy drugs have already been discussed. Please see treatments for breast cancer.
The drugs we are looking at here are called hormonal therapies and targeted therapies.
Hormonal Therapies
Hormone therapy will be prescribed if your breast cancer is hormone receptor positive. In his type of breast cancer there are receptors on the cell surface that latch onto the female hormone oestrogen, which stimulates the cancer cell to grow.
Oestrogen receptor positive cancers are common and account for approximately 75 per cent of breast cancers in post-menopausal women and around 50 to 60 per cent of pre-menopausal women. Testing for hormone receptors is now routinely carried out on tissue taken during a biopsy or after the operation to remove the breast cancer.
A small proportion of breast cancers (around five per cent) are sensitive to progesterone only, which may mean that they will respond to hormone therapy. In this case, your specialist will discuss the possible benefits and risks of hormone treatment with you.
If your breast cancer isn't hormone sensitive (receptor negative tumours) hormone therapy will not be of benefit. If this is the case you may be offered chemotherapy only, or you may not need any further treatment.
When is hormone therapy prescribed?
Hormone therapy may be prescribed for you in a number of situations:
Adjuvant Hormone (additional) therapy reduces the risk of breast cancer coming back. It usually starts after surgery but if you are also having chemotherapy it will probably start after this is finished.
Primary hormone therapy (neo adjuvant) is the use of hormone therapy before surgery. It is sometimes given to reduce the size of the breast cancer before surgery.
Hormone therapy can also be used alone as a treatment for breast cancer, for example for people who have other illnesses such as lung or heart conditions that mean they are unable to have surgery or radiotherapy. It can also be an option for those who don't want to have surgery.
Hormone therapy is used to treat breast cancer recurrences and can be used either alone or alongside other treatments, depending on what you have had before. If your breast cancer comes back when you're already being treated with hormone therapy, you'll probably be offered a different type of hormone therapy.
Targeted therapies
These work by blocking the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with the biology of the cancer cells. They target specific areas in the cells that cause cancer to grow. For example, some interfere with a group of proteins, called growth factors, which would otherwise help cancer cells grow faster and live longer.
By working on the very precise ways cancer cells develop, targeted therapies may be more effective and less harmful to normal body cells than other cancer treatments. The most well known targeted therapy at the moment is Herceptin (trastuzumab). But the benefits of many others are being looked at in clinical trials so
it is likely that more targeted therapies will be more widely available in the future.
