Hormonal Therapy
Hormonal therapy can reduce the risk of recurrence of the tumor that has been removed and it may also decrease the risk of a new breast cancer in either breast.
Most breast cancers in the U.S. are hormone sensitive. That is, the tumors express receptors for estrogen and/or progesterone, the two primary female hormones.
It’s actually a good thing to have ER/PR+ tumors. This is because after completing the standard treatments (surgery and radiation +/- chemo), a woman with hormone receptor positive tumors are eligible to further reduce the risk of recurrence by taking hormonal agents that block these receptors. Not only can hormonal therapy reduce the risk of recurrence of the tumor that has been resected, but it may also decrease the risk of a new breast cancer in either breast.
Other agents – The other test commonly run on breast tumor specimens is for a mutated protein called Her2/neu. Overexpression of this protein predicts for a more aggressive tumor. However, we now have a specific targeted agent called Herceptin that can be used to reduce the risk of recurrence in women with Her2/neu+ tumors.
