Online Booklet: Guide to Your Treatment Options

In this section you'll find the web version of the breastcancer.org booklet Your Guide to Breast Cancer Treatment.

Local Treatment and Systemic Treatment

Your doctor will talk to you about two ways to fight the cancer: local treatment and systemic treatment. Systemic means treatment of your whole body, or system. Local often means treatment of just your breast area and the lymph nodes near it.

If cancer has spread to other places beyond the breast, you may need a local form of treatment to those spots, in addition to systemic treatment.

The type of treatment you get depends on:

• the characteristics of the cancer,
• how much it has spread (also called the "stage" of the cancer),
• your general health, and
• your style of making decisions.

Some important points to keep in mind about your treatment plan are:

• It may include more than one type of local or systemic treatment.
• Most people need both local and systemic treatment.
• Some treatments are given at the same time. Others may be given one at a time.
• As you move through your treatment, the plan can change, depending on how well it's working for you.