Always ask questions until you understand what choices are open to you and what benefits and risks they offer. Being jolted to evaluate your possible death and handling treatment options that are not pleasant, may upset your emotions and you may need supportive care from others, such as friends and family. Adjuvant or ancilliary chemotherapy may be needed if the cancer has spread outside the breast, sometimes in combinations of two to five drugs. Adriamycin, Oncovin, or L-Pam. They generally are not used for longer than six months.
Statistics vary from study to study.
But many women can live with their tumor for a long period and new advances in treatment hold out improved quality of life benefits. Any woman who has had cancer in one breast is at increased risk of developing cancer in her other breast. She needs self examination and medical check ups every three to six months for the first three years after diagnosis and once or twice a year thereafter. In 1992, there were 180,000 new cases of breast cancer in women in the U.S. and 46,000 deaths. Thanks to public education and the use of mammograms, breast cancer incidence has stopped increasing.