Breast Cancer Treatment

At MD Anderson, we customize your breast cancer care so you receive the most-advanced, least-invasive treatments with the fewest side effects. In addition to treatments you might find at most breast cancer centers, we offer specialized therapies available at only a few centers in the nation.

Our Breast Cancer Treatments

If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, your doctor will talk to you about the best options for treating it. Your treatment will be customized especially for you, and it may include one or more of the following therapies.

Surgery

Like all surgeries, breast cancer surgery is most successful when performed by a specialist with a great deal of experience in the particular procedure. MD Anderson’s breast cancer surgeons are among the most skilled and renowned in the world. They perform a large number of surgeries for breast cancer each year, using the least-invasive and most-effective techniques. If reconstructive surgery is needed, our experts use the most advanced procedures with extraordinary skill.

Surgery is the most common treatment for breast cancer. Procedures may include:

Mastectomy: This surgery removes one or both breasts. The entire breast is removed, along with any affected lymph nodes. In about 80% of mastectomies, breast reconstruction or implant surgery is done during the same procedure, after the breast is removed.

Breast-sparing surgery is an attempt to save as much healthy breast tissue as possible. These procedures are best for treating early stage (I and II) breast cancer. Breast-sparing techniques include:

Lumpectomy: The tumor and a small margin of healthy breast tissue are removed.

Partial mastectomy: The tumor is removed, along with a margin of healthy breast tissue. The lining of the chest muscles and any affected lymph nodes under the arm are removed also.

Breast reconstruction: using either breast implants or tissue from your abdomen or other parts of your body, the surgeon can recreate a breast either during the cancer surgery (immediate reconstruction) or after surgery (delayed reconstruction). Learn more with our guide to breast reconstruction.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams to destroy cancer cells. New radiation therapy techniques and remarkable skill allow MD Anderson doctors to target tumors more precisely, delivering the maximum amount of radiation with the least damage to healthy cells.

Radiation therapy treatments available at MD Anderson include:

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT): MD Anderson pioneered the use of this type of radiotherapy for breast cancer. IMRT may lead to improved outcomes and less impact on your body than other types of radiation therapy.

Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI): an internal, localized form of radiation treatment (brachytherapy) that involves the insertion of radioactive "seeds" to kill breast cancer cells that may remain after lumpectomy surgery. The catheter device that delivers the radioactive seeds remains in place during the course of APBI treatment, usually about 8-10 days, before the seeds are withdrawn.  

Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Women who have breast-sparing surgery and/or mastectomy may receive radiation afterward to destroy any lingering breast cancer cells. Radiation also can be used before surgery to shrink large tumors or to treat tumors in a difficult location.

Chemotherapy

In breast cancer, chemotherapy most often is given before or after surgery. It also may be the main treatment for cancer that has spread outside the breast.

MD Anderson offers the most up-to-date and effective chemotherapy options for breast cancer. Our experts helped develop many drugs now used as standard care at other centers, as well as novel approaches to administer them.

We were among the first to demonstrate that chemotherapy can be safe to treat breast cancer after the first trimester of pregnancy. And we pioneered the use of chemotherapy before surgery to shrink breast cancer tumors, reducing damage to surrounding tissue.

• View our online chemotherapy class for breast cancer patients

Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy sometimes helps prevent female hormones (estrogen, progesterone and estradiol) from fueling the growth of breast cancer. Hormone therapy can involve taking drugs by mouth or through an IV. Tamoxifen^® is an example of a hormone therapy drug.

Surgery to remove the ovaries in women who have not yet reached menopause is another type of hormone therapy.

Targeted Therapy

Targeted therapies are drug treatments that help the body’s immune system fight cancer. Herceptin^® is a type of biologic therapy that targets cells that produce too much of a protein called HER2. This protein is present in some breast cancer patients. Herceptin binds to the cells, shutting off HER2 production.