IN YOUR CORNER Breast Cancer Treatment Coping Strategies

Breast cancer is a disease that touches many lives. But whether you’re just starting treatment or have been on hormonal treatment for some time, it’s important to know as much as you can about your condition.

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IN BREAST CANCER TREATMENT
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Coping Tips

All medications can cause side effects — knowing what to expect can help you better manage them. More

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Treatment coping strategies

Some of this information may already be familiar to you. And there may be more that you don’t know — particularly about the role your treatment plays in helping reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back. Everyone’s different, so be sure to talk to your doctor about treatment coping strategies that are appropriate for you.

Breast cancer treatment options

Breast cancer treatments are meant to remove or destroy cancer cells in your body and to help reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back.

There are two main types of breast cancer treatments

  • Local therapies, such as surgery and radiation, treat a specific area of your body
  • Systemic therapies, such as chemotherapy, hormonal treatments, and other medicines, travel in your bloodstream to affect or treat cancer cells

All medications can cause side effects — knowing what to expect can help you better manage them. Learn how to cope with common treatment side effects.

Learn more about breast cancer treatment options.

Your risk for breast cancer recurrence: why it’s important to stick to your treatment plan

For women diagnosed with early breast cancer, there is a significant risk that the cancer could come back within five years after diagnosis. The amount of risk depends on stage and other factors - you should discuss this with your doctor. The good news is that certain hormonal treatments are clinically proven to help reduce that risk in postmenopausal women. That’s why it’s important to keep taking your treatment exactly the way your doctor prescribes it.

  To make it easier to stay on course with your treatment plan, try using a daily tracking diary.