Breast Cancer Markers
BREAST CANCER MARKERS
Estrogen receptor positive disease
If a breast cancer is positive for estrogen receptors, this means that those cells are using a woman’s own estrogen to grow. This can happen whether she is premenopausal or postmenopausal. When the estrogen receptors are present, a woman will be offered some type of endocrine therapy. This is a daily pill that blocks estrogen from getting to breast cells. This medication, with surgery, improves survival for women with this type of breast cancer. It also drastically reduces the chance that the disease will come back. Women are prescribed these meds for 5-10 years. There are two main classes of endocrine therapies. One class is commonly represented by the drug tamoxifen. This medication works by blocking the cells in the body that use estrogen. Side effects include menopause symptoms: hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, changes in hair or skin texture, weight gain, etc. These are common but they don’t happen to everyone. And the severity of the side effects varies.The risks of tamoxifen include growth of tissue in the uterus and blood clots in the veins. The other class of endocrine therapy includes the drugs letrozole (Femara) andanastrazole (Arimidex). These drugs work by blocking the body’s ability to make estrogen. Side effects include menopause. These medications also reduce bone density by removing calcium from the bones. This can cause bone pain–mostly in the hips, thighs, forearms and hands. It’s important to know a woman’s bone density before starting these medications. She should take calcium and vitamin D to help keep her bones healthy.
HER2neu positive disease
When cancer cells have the HER2neu protein on their surfaces, a woman is considered for targeted chemotherapy against HER2neu. This is an intravenous medication (IV) that is given in combination with other chemotherapy agents. These medications (such as trastuzumab and pertuzumab) have been shown to reduce the chance that disease will return. They also prolong life. While such results may not be the same for everyone, the success is so great that every woman with HER2neu-positive disease is considered for, if not given, these medications.
Triple negative disease
Triple negative breast cancer describes disease that does not have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors or HER2neu proteins. This type of disease has an overall worse prognosis than other breast cancer types. One major reason for this is that triple negative disease currently has no targets for which there are treatments. Because this breast cancer type doesn’t have targets, chemotherapy is routinely considered for it.
