Breast cancer treatment

Breast cancer is usually treated surgically, either by removing just the cancerous tumour from the breast, or by removing the whole breast. The skin covering the breast is stitched back in place after the breast (or lump) has been removed, leaving a neat scar. Follow-up treatment may be recommended with either radiotherapy (a high-dose radiation beam is shone on the breast area), or chemotherapy with special anti-cancer drugs. This is to try to kill any cancer cells that have spread away from the original tumour in the breast, to stop them from developing into new secondary tumours elsewhere.