Cancer. Whenever people think about cancer they only think about disease, growth and tumors. What society fails to see is the victim behind the disease. People are always so concerned with “curing” the disease that the cancer victim is forgotten. Treating the disease has become more important than treating the patient and his innate needs as a human being. In breast cancer patients, treatments such as chemotherapy and locoregional therapy cure the cancer, but there are physical and psychological side effects that are not "treated" at the same time and can have lasting effects on a cancer patient's life at the breast. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A common treatment for breast cancer is chemotherapy. Numerous chemotherapy drugs have been in use since the 1960s. Combination chemotherapy has become the standard treatment, meaning the patient is given multiple chemotherapy drugs at a time. The main drugs used are cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, fluorouacil, methotrexate, mitomycin, mitozantrone, doxorubicin, docetaxel and gemcitabine. Chemotherapy can be used before or after surgery. Doing this before surgery can make the tumor smaller, which may mean fewer surgeries, such as just removing the tumor instead of a full mastectomy. Chemotherapy may be used after surgery for multiple reasons, such as if the cancer cells were high-grade or, more commonly, if there is a possibility of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body. In this case, chemotherapy is used as a preventative measure to reduce the chances of the cancer returning. Some chemotherapy drugs are taken orally, but most are given intravenously. Treatment is administered in cycles. A course typically consists of taking the drugs for one to five days, then a three to four week break, another few days of taking the drugs, then a break. A typical course of treatment contains up to eight cycles and will take up to eight months. However, multiple cycles may be recommended based on the type of breast cancer and the combination of drugs used. Locoregional therapy, which is therapy limited to a localized region of the body, is most commonly used as a treatment for breast cancer. in the form of a mastectomy. With a mastectomy, part or all of the breast is removed due to the tumor mass. However, this has not always been the best solution. “For nearly a century, Halsted radical mastectomy has been the standard surgical treatment for breast cancer. Women receiving this treatment suffered terrible cosmetic deformities, with loss of arm function due to resection of the pectoral muscles, high risk of lymphedema due to extensive axillary lymph node dissection, and significant pain and tightness on the chest wall. “(Ganz) New locoregional Therapy has evolved into the use of radiation to the localized region to treat the mass without having to remove the breast problem. It used to be less invasive, but recently there has been an increase in mastectomies because changes have been made to the techniques that have fewer side effects. “Recognition of the biological significance of locoregional recurrence as an indicator rather than an instigator of increased risk of distant disease has been an important step toward better understanding the biology of breast cancer with implications significant clinics. "Systemic chemotherapy at the time of.