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Things to consider about adjuvant therapy for breast cancer
By Mayo Clinic staffAs you make your decision about adjuvant therapy, here are some issues to consider and questions to ask yourself or your doctor.
- Are you the type of person who wants to do everything possible to prevent cancer from coming back? If so, you may be more comfortable in the long run if you're more aggressive in your treatment choices. Adjuvant therapy can help many women, but the benefit gained is different for different women depending on their age, tumor size, lymph node status, hormone receptor status, tumor grade and genetic makeup of their cancer cells.
- Are you the type of person who wants to know all of the specifics of your own case? If you are, ask your doctor or oncologist to provide you with numbers about your own chances for disease-free survival with adjuvant therapy.
- Is there evidence that adjuvant therapy helps women like you — in terms of age, tumor size, lymph node status, hormone receptor status and tumor grade — live longer without cancer coming back? Mathematical models of statistical averages can help to answer this question. Your doctor or oncologist can help you figure out an estimate of the specific benefits to be gained in your situation.
- Do the possible benefits of adjuvant therapy appear to outweigh the known risks? Adjuvant chemotherapy and hormone therapy can improve cancer-free survival in many women. But there's a price to pay in the side effects of these drugs. Have you weighed the trade-offs? How much importance do you put on the chance of benefit, compared with the importance you put on avoiding the possible side effects of therapy?
- Are you still hoping to have children? If you're premenopausal, adjuvant therapy can cause your ovaries to stop producing estrogen and progesterone, putting you into early menopause. This may cause permanent infertility.
