Chemotherapy and Hormone Therapy

Chemotherapy and Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Chemotherapy and hormone therapy are systemic therapies, which means that they use substances that travel through your bloodstream and spread through your entire body to treat cancer cells wherever they may be.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy stops the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by preventing them from multiplying. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the medication enters the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body.

Hormone therapy

Hormones are substances made by glands in your body and circulated in the bloodstream. Some hormones can cause certain cancers, like breast cancer, to grow.

Hormone therapy removes hormones or blocks their action and stops cancer cells from growing. If your test results show that the cancer cells have places where hormones can attach (receptors), medication is used to reduce the production of hormones or block them from working.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy still relies on the bloodstream to deliver medications or other substances throughout the entire body to identify and attack specific cancer cells without harming healthy cells.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses your immune system to fight cancer.