What types of adjuvant therapies are used for breast cancer?
Most adjuvant therapies are systemic: They use substances that travel through the bloodstream, reaching and affecting cancer cells all over the body. Adjuvant therapy for breast cancer can include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, the targeted drug trastuzumab (Herceptin®), radiation therapy, or a combination of treatments. • Adjuvant chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Research has shown that adjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer helps to prevent the cancer from returning (1). Usually, more than one drug is given during adjuvant chemotherapy (called combination chemotherapy). • Hormonal therapy deprives breast cancer cells of the hormone estrogen, which many breast tumors need to grow. A commonly used hormonal treatment is the drug tamoxifen, which blocks estrogen’s activity in the body. Studies have shown that tamoxifen helps prevent the original cancer from returning and also helps to prevent the development of new cancers in the other breast; however, many wom
