Radiation therapy, medications, and surgery are the usual ways to treat breast cancer. Improved treatment techniques, diagnosis at an early stage, and improved screening methods have become the reason for the declined number of deaths from breast cancer over the past few years. A combination of factors that include specific information about the cancer, your health, and your preferences is the basis of decisions about how to treat breast cancer.

You and your doctor will consider the following when making decision about your breast cancer treatment:

• Whether the lymph nodes in axilla, the underarm area, is affected by your breast cancer

• What is the aggressiveness of your breast cancer

• Whether human epidermal growth factor technically known as HER-2/neu is present in your breast cancer cells

• The location and size of your breast cancer

• Whether receptors to the hormones estrogen and progesterone known as estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor or ER/PR status are possessed by your breast cancer

When developing a treatment plan for you, your health and your personal preferences will also be considered by your doctor as well as by yourself. I.e.:

• Whether you are having other serious health problems

• Your family and personal history of breast cancer

• How do you feel about keeping your breast

Surgery to remove the cancer from the breast is opted by most of the breast cancer victims. To find out whether the breast cancer has spread to some or all of the lymph nodes under the arm, they (some or all of the lymph nodes) are also usually removed.