What Can Hormonal Therapy Do for YOU?
Suppose you have just finished your initial therapy for an early-stage breast cancer. You had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. How much more benefit will you get from hormonal therapy? Will it significantly reduce your risk of recurrence?
Remember, you are NOT starting with 100% risk. Suppose your starting risk of recurrence is 20%, and your treatments have cut that almost in half. Your risk then becomes about 10%. The higher your risk of recurrence is, the greater the benefit you will see from hormonal therapy. Likewise, the lower your risk is, the lower your benefit from hormonal therapy. You also have to weigh the risk of side effects from hormonal treatments, which depends on your overall health picture.
Work through these issues with your doctor. Whether or not you decide hormonal therapy will benefit YOU depends on many factors. You can start taking hormonal therapy and then re-evaluate it over time to see if your treatment plan is working well for you. And stay tuned in to Breastcancer.org to find out about new advances in hormonal therapy.
An original video-on-demand educational initiative brought to you by Breastcancer.org and Comcast. Visit www.comcast.net/pinkribbon each week through the end of October for engaging, up-to-date videos and information about the fight to end breast cancer.