Question

answer the question below

A routine mammogram showed a large mass in the right breast of Mrs. H, age 42 years A biopsy confirmed the presence of a malignant tumor. Mrs. H was concerned because her mother and an aunt had had breast cancer. No metastases were detected at this time. A mastectomy was performed, and a number of axillary and mediastinal lymph nodes were removed. Pathologic examination showed that several nodes from each area contained malignant cells. Given that this case was considered to be stage III, it was recommended that Mrs. H have chemotherapy and radiation treatment following surgery and later have her ovaries removed to reduce her estrogen levels.

Answer 1

Answer:

☆MASTECTOMY : It is surgical removal of the breast. It is usually performed to treat breast cancer. Mastectomy is a treatment option for early stage of breast cancer.

Advantages:

* It reduce the risk of recurrence of breast cancer.

* Most of the women do not require radiation therapy after the surgery

* Effective treatment option for early stages of breast cancer.

Disadvantages

*It is a long duration procedure

*permanent loss of the breast

*It takes long period of time to recover

☆ Lymph node dissection: It involves the surgical removal of axillary lymph nodes and mediastenal lymph nodes to prevent the spread of cancer cells.

Advantages;

* It helps to prevent the metastasis of breast cancer

*High survival rate

*Good prognosis

Disadvantages:

*Increased risk of infection

*Numbness due to nerve injury

*Delayed wound healing

☆CHEMOTHERAPY: Chemotherapy is a treatment method used to destroy cancer cells using drugs. It can used before surgery to reduce the tumor size and after the surgery to prevent the risk of recurrence.It consists of combination of drugs given over a set of time period

Advantages
*Relatively short period of hospitalization.
*The patient can continue a normal lifestyle throughout the treatment.
*Better practices of chemotherapy could kill all cancerous cells and prohibits its reappearance on the patient.
*Drugs can be administered gradually by decreasing the side effects.

Disadvantages
*Potential side effects include nausea, hair loss,weight loss and fatigue.
*Chemotherapy lowers white blood cell counts thereby decreasing the immunity.
*Long term side effects include energy drain that takes almost a year to regain it back.

☆Radiation therapy: It is a method used to destroy cancer cells using high energy X ray or other particles. Intra operative radiation therapy and external beam radiation therapy are the two types radiation therapy.

Advantages:

*It reduce the risk of recurrence of breast cancer

*Normal cells can easily recover

*It helps to shrink the tumor

Disadvantages:

*It can damage the surrounding tissues

*It has many side effects

*Radiation therapy might affect the lung tissue

☆ Ovarian ablation : It is the surgical removal of ovaries to prevent the production of estrogen

Advantages

*Reduce the estrogen production

*It reduce the risk of ovarian cancer

*Cost effective method

Disadvantages

*Permanent loss of ovaries

*Hormonal imbalance

*Early menopause

☆Early stages of breast cancer with treatments has high rate of prognosis. In most cases 99% of women recover from the condition.