Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the leading cancer for women but one with a high survival rate. It is also the cancer type that lends itself most directly to therapeutic exercise. Depending upon the diagnosis, treatment may involve a lumpectomy, a simple or modified radical mastectomy or on occasion a radical mastectomy. In these later cases many younger women may opt for breast reconstruction. During initial surgery, lymph nodes in the axilla or underarm area are often removed for staging purposes. The recent use of sentinal node biopsies reduce the need for the the removal of many lymph nodes thereby limiting scarring. Breast cancer may spread by seeding to adjacent areas or metastasize to adjacent areas to through the blood vessels and/or lymph vessels. The most common sites of distant metastasis for breast cancer are the bones, lungs, liver and occasionally the brain. Treatments commonly include radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy such as tamoxifen with two or more methods often being used in combination.