Our approach to breast cancer treatment
When you’re facing breast cancer, our network of clinics and cancer care services in North and Central Texas give you access to breast cancer treatment options at a location convenient for you. With a holistic approach to treatment and customized care plans, we help you fight breast cancer on your terms.
Breast cancer treatment can be complex and requires careful consideration to ensure you receive the most appropriate care for the type and stage of your condition. Your oncology team will discuss treatments in detail, including possible side effects and long-term considerations that may influence your decision. Whichever treatment you receive, you can trust that you will receive it from a compassionate team that has your needs top of mind. You can find the support you need to help navigate the treatment process, recovery and beyond.
Breast cancer surgery
Most women have some form of surgery as part of their treatment plan. Depending on the type of breast cancer you have, surgery may be your only treatment. In many cases, however, surgery is combined with radiation therapy or another treatment to ensure all cancerous cells have been destroyed.
Different surgeries have different goals. You may have breast cancer surgery to:
- Treat cancer by removing a tumor or the entire breast
- See whether cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes near the breast
- Reconstruct your breast after surgery
- Treat or remove cancers that have spread to other parts of the body, known as metastatic cancer
Lumpectomy
A lumpectomy is also called breast-conserving surgery. As its name suggests, this surgery involves removing only the lump or tumor, leaving your breast mostly intact. Your breast surgeon may also remove some nearby tissue.
Typically, a lumpectomy is recommended for early-stage breast cancer and breast cancers not associated with genetic mutations. If your tumor is large or you have multiple areas of cancer in your breast, a lumpectomy may not be the right treatment for you.
If you have a lumpectomy, you will likely also need radiation therapy.
Mastectomy
A mastectomy is surgery that removes one or both breasts. Your breast surgeon may also remove nearby lymph nodes to see if they have cancerous cells (known as a sentinel or axillary lymph node biopsy).
We understand that removing an entire breast is a big life decision. It may be a good option for you if you have early-stage cancer and don’t want or are unable to have radiation therapy, which is typically required with a lumpectomy. Mastectomies are also recommended for women with advanced or inflammatory breast cancer, genetic mutations and multiple tumors that are located far apart. Your healthcare team will be there to answer your questions and offer support during this process.
Lymph node biopsy or dissection
Two procedures allow your breast surgeon to determine whether cancer has spread outside the breast.
- Sentinel lymph node biopsy is used to remove sentinel lymph nodes, which are the first lymph nodes affected by breast cancer. These lymph nodes are under your arm, and the surgeon uses a special dye to find them. Once removed, the lymph nodes are tested to see if your cancer has spread.
- Axillary lymph node dissection involves removing many more lymph nodes under your arm and is usually done if a sentinel lymph node biopsy suggests that cancer has spread or if your lymph nodes are swollen. Often, your breast surgeon will perform this during a mastectomy, but you may need a second surgery to have it done.
Breast reconstruction
Many women who have breast cancer surgery have the option of breast reconstruction. For those having a mastectomy, rebuilding the breast mound with implants or natural tissue can restore its appearance. In a lumpectomy, fat grafting may correct dimples left from the procedure. It's important to remember that the options for reconstruction are unique to each woman's situation and preference.
Reconstructive surgery can be done immediately during cancer surgery or delayed until later. Your options will depend not only on your medical condition but also on your personal preferences.
If you're considering reconstruction, it's helpful to discuss it with both your breast surgeon and a plastic surgeon before surgery to plan the best approach, even if reconstruction is delayed.
Radiation therapy for breast cancer
Radiation therapy targets breast cancer cells with high-energy radiation. It is often used in combination with other treatments to ensure cancer cells have been destroyed.
Radiation therapy is often combined with lumpectomy in women who have early-stage breast cancers. Women with advanced cancers and inflammatory breast cancer may need radiation therapy after a mastectomy. It may also be used in women with metastatic breast cancer to treat symptoms or cancers that have spread to the bones or other areas of the body.
How many radiation treatments you have and how often you have them will depend on the type of radiation you receive. There are two types typically used to treat breast cancer:
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External beam radiation therapy (EBRT)
The most common form of radiation to treat breast cancer, EBRT uses a machine to deliver high-energy beams from outside your body. If you had a lumpectomy, your radiation oncologist may direct the radiation to your entire breast. If you had a mastectomy, the radiation may be directed at specific areas, such as your scar or the chest wall. If a biopsy found cancer in your lymph nodes, the area from which they were removed will receive radiation, as well.
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Brachytherapy
Also called internal radiation, brachytherapy involves tiny radioactive seeds placed directly inside the area of cancer in your breast. These deliver higher doses of radiation than EBRT can provide, and it’s often a treatment used after a lumpectomy.
Chemotherapy for breast cancer
Chemotherapy, or chemo, medications fight cancer cells throughout your body. Delivered in pill form or intravenously through an infusion, these medications are intended to kill cancer or prevent the cells from dividing and growing.
Chemotherapy can be given before or after surgery, or both:
- Neoadjuvant chemotherapy: Given before surgery to shrink the cancer and make it easier to remove.
- Adjuvant chemotherapy: Given after surgery, as soon as you've healed and no later than 12 weeks after surgery.
There are many different chemo medications for breast cancer. Often, medical oncologists combine medications for maximum effectiveness, but they often use a single medication to treat advanced cancers.
You may also have chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy or targeted therapies.
Hormone therapy for breast cancer
Hormone therapy targets cancers affected by hormones, referred to as hormone receptor-positive breast cancers. Hormone therapy works to prevent the body from producing hormones that cause cancer to grow or by blocking how effective they are.
As part of the cancer staging process, doctors test cancer cells to see if they have receptors for proteins that attract or bind to hormones. If they do, your cancer is considered hormone receptor-positive. If they do not, you have a hormone receptor-negative cancer and will not receive hormone therapy.
There are several types of hormone therapy. Some may reduce hormone production, while others block hormones from reaching receptors on cancer cells.
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Ovarian ablation
Before you go through menopause, your ovaries prompt your body to produce estrogen. During ovarian ablation, a doctor surgically removes your ovaries or uses radiation therapy to stop or reduce your ovaries’ production of estrogen. Your doctor may also recommend hormone or chemo medications that suppress ovarian function.
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Medications to reduce hormone production
These medications block an enzyme your body needs to produce estrogen. Most often, postmenopausal women receive these medications. In some cases, premenopausal women receive them in combination with ovary suppression medications.
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Medications that block the effects of hormones
These medications bind to the hormone receptors on cancer cells and prevent estrogen from causing breast cancer cells to grow. Some medications can also help destroy the estrogen receptor. In addition to stopping cancer growth, these medications can also lessen the chances of cancer coming back or occurring in the other breast.
Immunotherapy for breast cancer
Immunotherapy stimulates your immune system and helps it fight cancer.
Your immune system is usually good at identifying foreign invaders to your body, such as infections, and can even identify and attack some cancer cells. However, other cancer cells have properties that make them harder for your immune system to identify. Immunotherapies help your immune system better find those cells.
Although cancer researchers have helped develop many immunotherapies, the only type currently used to treat breast cancer is an immune checkpoint inhibitor.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Normally, immune checkpoints are proteins that help stop the immune system from mistakenly attacking healthy cells. However, some breast cancer cells can take control of these checkpoints, which prevents your immune system from attacking the cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors block this from happening, allowing the immune system to better fight the cancer.
Currently, immune checkpoint inhibitors are often combined with chemotherapy to treat metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer with certain biomarkers and other types of cancer that can’t be treated with surgery.
Targeted therapy for breast cancer
Targeted therapies are medications that work against, or target, specific markers or proteins that help breast cancer cells survive. Like chemotherapy medications, targeted therapies can spread throughout the body and attack cancers that have spread. But, because they target specific parts of cells, targeted therapies may help kill cancer cells that chemo cannot.
Targeted therapies can help treat a wide range of breast cancers, from early-stage to metastatic, and breast cancers that have returned after initial treatment. You may receive them before or after surgery or in combination with other chemo, hormone or targeted therapy medications. Some targeted therapies can be given as standalone treatments.
Currently, more than 25 targeted therapy medications have been approved to treat breast cancer. They work in different ways:
Protein inhibitors
Proteins on cancer cells send signals that cause cells to grow or divide. Targeted therapies can target these proteins and interfere with how they work, including:
- Tyrosine, a protein associated with HER2-positive breast cancers
- Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDKs), in particular, CDK4 and CDK6, are associated with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative cancers.
- Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), associated with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative cancers and thought to help blood vessels that feed tumors
Monoclonal antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are man-made versions of proteins typically produced by your immune system. They bind to proteins on cancer cells that promote cell growth and then kill, block or prevent their growth.
Monoclonal antibodies have been found to treat many diseases, including HER2- and other hormone-positive breast cancers and triple-negative breast cancer.
Medications to treat BRCA mutations
Breast cancer can occur when the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes mutate. These genes typically repair damaged DNA using a protein called PARP, but genetic changes can interfere with how well they work. PARP inhibitors are a class of medications that target the PARP protein, causing cells with malfunctioning DNA to die.
Breast cancer clinical trials
Baylor Scott & White Research Institute (BSWRI) conducts studies exploring potentially new medications and therapies for nearly a dozen different cancer types. Trials are currently underway at select Baylor Scott & White facilities in North and Central Texas.
Finding specialized breast cancer treatment
We help you get care at a location that fits your needs. We offer several locations for your care, including specialized breast cancer treatment centers in North and Central Texas.
Baylor Scott & White Breast Care Specialists of Texas
1250 8th Ave Ste 650, Fort Worth, TX, 76104- Monday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Tuesday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Wednesday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Thursday: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 1:30 pm
Baylor Scott & White Breast Care Specialists of Texas (Satellite)
6100 Harris Pkwy Ste 260, Fort Worth, TX, 76132
Baylor Scott & White Breast Specialists - Dallas
3410 Worth St Ste 235, Dallas, TX, 75246- Monday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Cancer and Infusion Center - Austin Oak Hill
5251 US 290 Ste 100, Austin, TX, 78735- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Cancer Center - Round Rock
300A University Blvd , Round Rock, TX, 78665- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center - Dallas
3410 Worth St , Dallas, TX, 75246
Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center - Duncanville
310 E Hwy 67 , Duncanville, TX, 75137- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center - Irving
2001 N MacArthur Blvd Ste 120, Irving, TX, 75061
Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center - Waxahachie
2380 N Interstate 35E , Waxahachie, TX, 75165- Monday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Tuesday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Wednesday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Thursday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Friday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Saturday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
- Sunday: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm
Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - Uptown
2727 E Lemmon Ave , Dallas, TX, 75204
Baylor Scott & White Specialty Clinic - Marble Falls
800 W State Hwy 71 , Marble Falls, TX, 78654- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Baylor Scott & White Surgical Group of North Texas - Grapevine
1056 Texan Trl , Grapevine, TX, 76051- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center - Temple
2401 S 31st St , Temple, TX, 76508- Monday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Baylor Scott & White Women's Imaging Center - Irving (MacArthur & Hwy 183)
2001 N MacArthur Blvd Ste 250, Irving, TX, 75061
Baylor Scott & White Women's Imaging Center - Las Colinas (MacArthur & I-635)
440 W Lyndon B Johnson Fwy Plaza II, Ste 120A, Irving, TX, 75063
Baylor Scott & White Women's Imaging Center - McKinney
5236 W University Dr Ste 2500, McKinney, TX, 75071- Monday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
- Tuesday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
- Wednesday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
- Thursday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Baylor Scott & White Women's Imaging Center - Plano
4716 Alliance Blvd Pavilion II, Ste 100, Plano, TX, 75093
Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health
3500 Gaston Ave , Dallas, TX, 75246