What are the usual indications for chemotherapy?
In general, patients receive chemotherapy if they have positive lymph nodes or large and or aggressive invasive tumors. However, recently there is a general trend toward treating women with chemotherapy who have smaller and less aggressive tumors. This is because studies are showing better outcomes when chemotherapy is included in the treatment plan. For example, in previous years patients would be given chemotherapy if their tumor size was greater than 3 centimeters ( a centimeter is about ½ inch.). But now studies are showing that there may be some benefit to using chemotherapy if the tumor is 1 centimeter or greater if the tumor is aggressive or shows negative characteristics such as a poorly differentiated tumor, high S phase, HER2/neu positive, or hormone receptor negative (estrogen and/or progesterone). (Please see our patient information sheet called Breast Cancer Terminology for definitions of the previous terms). Also, patients with local advanced disease (growth of the cancer
