Have You been Diagnosed with Breast Cancer?

There is important research being done on breast cancer and almost everyday new findings are being revealed. An important piece of information that will directly affect one out of every four women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer is that Herceptin is highly effective in the treatment of breast cancer.

Herceptin is used to boost the benefits of Chemotherapy and surgery, and now experts say that it must be used to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and overall health.

Herceptin is a drug that is highly effective in the treatment of breast cancer in its early stages. It is specifically targeted against certain receptors in the body that aggravate the cancer. Approximately 25% of patients have tumors that are diagnosed as HER2+, this is a receptor in the body called Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2. HER2+ tumors tend to grow and metastasize more rapidly than others. Herceptin is especially effective in the treatment of HER+ tumors. Herceptin usage is seen to reduce the risk of distant recurrence of the disease by almost 50%, which is a phenomenal rate of decrease for cancer risk.

HER2+ breast cancer is very aggressive and therefore it becomes important to find out the HER2 status of your breast cancer. This helps the doctor the treatments that may be right for you.
Each breast cell that is normal actually contains a copy of the HER2 gene, this is something that allows normal cells to grow. The gene is found in the DNA, and it contains the information for producing the HER2 protein.

Also called the HER2 protein, the HER2 receptor, is found also found on the surface of some normal cells. The HER2 proteins send out signals from the outside to the inside of the cell to grow and divide.

In Breast Cancer that is HER2+, the cancer cells have an abnormally high number of HER2 genes in every cell. This extra HER2 protein appears on the surface of cancer cells as well adding to the rapid growth and multiplication of cancer cells. This is the reason why HER2+ breast cancer is usually extremely aggressive.

Women who have been treated with Herceptin during or after chemotherapy and surgery show remarkable improvement. The drug also decreases the chance of developing breast cancer in the other breast. Over a prolonged period of time, the treatment via Herceptin has shown tremendous reductions in the recurrence of breast cancer.
Experts are now of the opinion that Herceptin must be included as standard care for breast cancer treatment unless there is some specific reason not to. Even for those with early stage cancer of the breast, Herceptin is now considered an important treatment.