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Managing breast cancer

Breast cancer staging helps to define the best treatment options for the disease. However, due to the nature of the disease, treatment regimens must be varied based on individual circumstances.

Therefore, successful breast cancer management may depend on several factors such as size/staging of the cancer and importantly the patient’s treatment choices.

Breast cancer can have a big impact on quality of life from the beginning of the cancer suspicions. This is because breast cancer causes massive anxiety, suffering and loss. Many women are afraid of the disease, so they tend to ignore the signs and symptoms, hoping that it will resolve by itself and that the symptoms will just disappear. This can also lead to delay diagnosis and poor prognosis.

Cancer characteristics such as stage and aggressiveness, and the treatment options chosen by women and their doctor, can affect their quality of life. There is evidence suggesting high numbers of psychological and psychiatric morbidity in women with breast cancer. Often women with this disease will develop many psychological problems such as clinically high levels of anxiety and/or depression, severe sexual difficulties and other problems related to body image. These problems are different from their normal reactions to the diagnosis of a potentially life threatening disease and the side effects of the treatments. Unfortunately, doctors and the clinical team often fail to recognize these problems because they often see the distress and anxiety as a normal reaction to the diagnosis, prognosis, and/or treatment side effects.

These problems can also apply to women with early stage breast cancer who have a good prognosis. Due to the nature of the disease, many women often spend a lot of time worrying about the possibility that the cancer might come back in the future.

Surgical management

Losing a breast or both breasts is extremely difficult for women. If this is going to happen to you, you should seek advice and support from healthcare professionals. It is important for you to educate yourself, both before and after surgery about the effect of losing breast(s). It will help in reducing stress and life-dissatisfaction.

Nowadays, there are many more women choose to have breast conservation therapy, but still there are some women who for medical and/or personal reasons choose to go for mastectomy.

Breast reconstruction helps to rebuild the shape of the breast, but may not restore normal breast sensation. Therefore, the impact on breast sensation should also be discussed properly with your doctor. However, breast reconstruction may help to rebuild your self-confidence and make you feel more comfortable with your body, which helps you feel more attractive.

Breast construction is usually done, using silicone implants, but a technique of using tissue from other parts of the body is also available. You should discuss the options with your doctor before you undergo surgery.

Pain Management

Not every breast cancer patient experiences pain. According to the World Health Organisation, about 30% of people with metastatic cancer do not experience any pain at all. For those who suffer from cancer pain, a better understanding of the cause of pain and improvement of drug treatments may help to reduce or even discontinue pain.

Aims of cancer pain management are to relieve the pain during the day and the night and at rest and on movement. Cancer pain can be controlled effectively by both drug and/or non-drug treatment. Everybody experiences pain differently. The amount and type of pain you experience may be different from the pain that other people who have the same cancer experience. The level of pain you experienced may remain unchanged or gets worse, but remember that in any situation medication can be adjusted to suit your need.

Also, if you are taking pain-killers regularly or extensively, it may slightly increase your risk of pain-killer addiction. However, addiction to pain killers is very rare in patients with metastatic breast cancer. You should act quickly when you experience pain. Pain medication should be taken as soon as the pain starts. It is easier to ease pain if you take immediate action. You should always remember that experiencing pain does not mean that the cancer has spread or that it has become more serious. Pain is not related to the degree/stage of the cancer.

Pain is not so hard to deal with. In spite of this, pain is more difficult to control if you are also experiencing other conditions such as severe anxiety and/or depression at the same time.  Again, being in pain may make you anxious and depressed. It is important for you to talk to your doctor immediately if you have some concerns about the feelings you are experiencing.