Beating Stage 4 Breast Cancer: Is it Possible?

Stage 4 Breast Cancer is the most serious form of breast cancer that is also known as metastatic breast cancer. In this stage, the blood cancer that has developed in your breast spreads to other areas of the body like lungs, bones, liver, and brain through the lymphatic system. This advanced form of carcinoma life threatening but following the doctor’s recommended plan for treatment along with following a healthy lifestyle can help not only in improving your outcome but increases your lifespan, significantly.

Get professional treatment from an oncologist

An oncologist is a person who specializes in treating this malignant disease. The treatment plan would restrict further growth of tumors and stop them from spreading. Your systematic treatment would aim at treating all the areas infected by the stage 4 induction of cancer. A variety of treatment options would be suggested by your oncologist, depending upon medical history and specific characteristics of the disease. The variety of treatment options usually recommended include chemotherapy, hormone therapy to treat hormone-sensitive cancers, radiation therapy to treat brain and bone tumors besides surgery which is a more rare option.

Dietary choices make a considerable difference

A nutritious diet is of paramount importance to nourish your body and maintain a higher quality of life. Reducing one’s body fat is imperative as it reduces levels of estrogen which decrease and in certain cases, eliminate the chances of carcinoma recurrence. The food products that are usually recommended to avoid for the sake of the disease include large amounts of red meat, high-fat dairy products, large amounts of saturated fats, alcohol and food and drinks rich in sugar.

Exercise goes a long way in beating breast cancer

Exercise is imperative for your physical and mental health. But consistency is the most important aspect that must be maintained. It is better if one exercises in small amounts every single day than following an extremely self-exhilarating process. Exercise helps you to brave the disease in indirect ways. It helps to reduce your body fat, increase your body strength and resilience, increase energy levels, reduce stress impacts, rejuvenate your mood, and lift your spirits. It also reduces the side effects from treatment of this form of cancer besides improving your quality of life.

Hormonal Therapy

This disease demands a way of treatment is apt for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer that spreads to soft tissues, bones, and muscles. It is also impactful when cancer has spread to inner organs like liver, lungs, and brain. For post-menopausal women, an aromatase inhibitor is offered that Aromasin, Arimidex or Femara. On insistence to not take an aromatase inhibitor, they can shift to tamoxifen-like tamoxifen and Nolvadex. For pre-menopausal women, ovarian ablation or ovarian suppression is effectuated that stops the ovaries from making estrogen which causes menopause. It is combined with an aromatase inhibitor treatment program in the case of this malignant disease.

Chemotherapy

It is the best treatment option suggested for hormone receptor–negative stage IV breast cancer. It is also offered for hormone receptor–positive cancerous cells which have spread to inner organs. Chemotherapy treatment option is given as long as cancer cells respond to it. No single drug or combination is the absolute standard for this disease. Some of the usual drugs that are used in singularity include doxorubicin, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, cisplatin, epirubicin, gemcitabine, and docetaxel. Some of the drugs used in combinations include docetaxel and capecitabine, AC, EC, CAF, CEF, gemcitabine, and paclitaxel.

Targeted therapy

Trastuzumab (Herceptin) is provided for stage IV HER2-positive breast cancer. Its common usage is that it is usually added to chemotherapy. It may be provided in isolation if you aren’t physically fit to respond to chemotherapy. In such case, it is given until the disease shows again.

Breast cancer treatment cost in India vary widely, from city to city and between government-owned and private cancer hospitals. On a general note, it can be said that the cost of treatment in private hospitals is more than treatment costs one would incur in government owned or government subsidized hospitals.   

Strong resilience to battle carcinoma along with following treatment options religiously can help you beat this disease and live your life. Targeted therapy along with chemotherapy and radiation therapy go a long way in acting as saviors to battle this disease.