General Questions:

What is breast cancer?

Who gets breast cancer and what are the risk factors?

What are signs and symptoms of breast cancer, and how is it diagnosed?

Staging: What happens after diagnosis?

How do you treat breast cancer?

- Surgery (lumpectomy vs. mastectomy)

- Radiation Therapy (the basics)

    - External Beam Radiation including IMRT

    - Balloon Brachytherapy

    - Radiation after mastectomy

    - Side effects of breast radiation

- Chemotherapy or Hormone Therapy

How do I make an appointment to have radiation at ARC?

Other Breast Cancer/Radiation Related Topics:

Balloon Brachytherapy for Breast Cancer

The Radiation Treatment Process

Once it is determined that you have breast cancer, your doctors will perform many additional tests to determine more information about the type of breast cancer you have. The most critical test results for your treatment and your long-term health will show whether your cancer is invasive or non-invasive and whether lymph nodes are involved and if so, how many. Your medical team will also investigate the size of your tumor, tumor grade, hormone receptor status, HER2/neu oncogene overexpression and the margins of resection. The results of all of these tests will help your doctors better treat your cancer and determine which course of treatment will be best suited for you.

Based on the results of these tests, your cancer will be staged. Based on the stage, together with your medical team, you will decide which course of treatment will be most appropriate for you.

Click here to find out the options in treating breast cancer