What Is Adjuvant Therapy?

If the growth or tumour during breast cancer develops for longer period within the breast, then there is a possibility that the cancer cells may spread to the lymph nodes. These nodes are found under the arms or in the chest and are the appropriate place for cancer cells to spread. While performing surgery, the surgeon may remove some of these nodes in order to get a control over spreading cancer cells.

Hence, the presence of cancer cells in lymph nodes may require extensive surgery. In this case, patients may undergo radiation, chemotherapy or hormone therapy or a combination of three. The combination of these three therapies together is known as 'adjuvant therapy'. Below these are described briefly:

• Radiation: Once the cancer cells are removed through surgery, the doctors may recommend the patients radiation in order to destroy or shrink the remaining cancer cells. Radiation stops the cancer cells to divide. But on the other hand, it also stops few healthy cells to divide any further such as hair cell, skin cell etc, that is why, hair and skin get so much affected by radiation therapy.

• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is done either orally or by injecting drugs directly into the blood vessels. The timeframe for this therapy may range from four to nine months.

• Hormone therapy: It has been observed that the growth of the cancer cells may be slowed down by the intervention of the drug tamoxifen or anti-oestrogen medication. The therapy may include removal of the ovaries in the cases of pre-menopausal women in severe cases in order to eliminate the main source of oestrogen production.