Medication

• Hormonal (anti-estrogen) therapy: Patients with estrogen receptor positive tumors will typically receive hormonal therapy after chemotherapy is completed. These inhibit the production or activity of estrogen and progesterone, or bind as a hormone receptor antagonists to the normal receptor for a given hormone and prevent its activation.

• Targeted therapy: Targeted cancer therapies are treatments that target specific characteristics of cancer cells, such as a protein that allows the cancer cells to grow in a rapid or abnormal way. In patients whose cancer expresses an over-abundance of the HER2 protein, a monoclonal antibody known as trastuzumab (Herceptin) is used to block the activity of the HER2 protein in breast cancer cells, slowing their growth. Herceptin (chemical name: trastuzumab) works against HER2-positive breast cancers by blocking the ability of the cancer cells to receive chemical signals that tell the cells to grow.