Week 13

"Chemotherapy is a systemic breast cancer therapy. The anticancer drugs enter the bloodstream to reach cancer cells throughout the entire body, not just the breast. Chemotherapy is typically used to treat patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Neo-adjuvant (or primary systemic) breast cancer chemotherapy may be used before surgery to reduce the size of large breast tumors and to destroy cancer cells. This type of chemotherapy often makes breast-conserving surgery possible. It also helps our cancer doctors determine the effectiveness of a particular regimen on the breast tumor. Adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy may be used after surgery or radiation therapy to eliminate any remaining cancer cells that may not have been removed during breast cancer surgery and/or radiation therapy. It may also prevent the disease from spreading to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy treatment uses medicine to weaken and destroy cancer cells in the body, including cells at the original cancer site and any cancer cells that may have spread to another part of the body. Chemotherapy, often shortened to just "chemo," is a systemic therapy, which means it affects the whole body by going through the bloodstream. For breast cancer, chemotherapy drugs are given intravenously (directly into a vein) or orally (by mouth). Once the drugs enter the bloodstream, they travel to all parts of the body in order to reach cancer cells that may have spread beyond the breast -- therefore chemotherapy is considered a "systemic" form of breast cancer treatment.Chemotherapy is given in cycles of treatment followed by a recovery period. The entire chemotherapy treatment generally lasts several months to one year, depending on the type of drugs given. When breast cancer is limited to the breast or lymph nodes, chemotherapy may be given after a lumpectomy or mastectomy. This is known as adjuvant treatment and may help reduce the chance of breast cancer recurrence.Chemotherapy may also be given as the main treatment for women whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body outside of the breast and lymph nodes. This spread is known as metastatic breast cancer and occurs in a small number of women at the time of diagnosis, or when the cancer recurs some time after initial treatment for localized (non-metastatic) breast cancer."

http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/chemotherapy-treatment