Your next appointment
Helping you to make the most of your time with your healthcare team
You have a choice
Decisions about treatment
Different breast cancer treatments affect your body in different ways, so you should think about how you want to feel and what you would still like to be able to do. Some treatments may cause side effects. You should speak to your healthcare professional at your breast cancer appointment to find out what treatments are available to you, and you should ask them what they will do to your body.
Catching it early
Recurrence of breast cancer
If you have had primary breast cancer, there is a chance the cancer could return. There are differnt ways it can return. Local recurrence is where the breast cancer comes back in the treated breast and distant recurrence is where the cancer returns in another part of the body, such as the bones or lungs. Your breast care nurse can tell you what to expect after treatment. They can explain what to look for in the treated breast, your chest area (if you had a mastectomy) and in the lymph nodes close to the breast.1 This is because the sooner recurrence is identified, the sooner appropriate action can be taken by your team. Ask your healthcare professionals at your next breast cancer appointment if you are unsure how to check.
Considerations for treatment
Overall survival and Quality of Life questions
In the matter of discussing treatments for your secondary breast cancer, you may want to consider asking your doctor about the overall survival benefit of any breast cancer treatments they recommend. This is because some treatments can work to keep you alive longer, however reduce your quality of life and therefore your ability to carry on as close to normally as you might like. It’s important to seriously consider how you want to spend your days in treatment.
Overall survival (or OS) is the length of time, from either the date of diagnosis or the start of treatment for a disease, that patients diagnosed with the disease are still alive.2
Surgeon³
Specialises in breast cancer surgery and may do reconstruction surgery.
Plastic surgeon³
Specialises in breast reconstruction.
Cancer doctor (oncologist)³
A doctor who specialises in treating cancer with chemotherapy and other cancer drugs.
Specialist nurse³
Gives information and support.
Radiologist³
Specialises in x-rays and scans.
Pathologist³
Specialises in studying tissue samples and cells.
Patients support groups³
While not a part of your professional MDT, there are plenty of other groups you can talk to. Patient support groups are a fantastic place to find people in a similar situation to yourself to share support, knowledge, tips, advice and stories. Learn more about patient support groups here.
Primary and secondary defined
Learn the general and more specific symptoms of primary and secondary breast cancer.
Crucial conversations in breast cancer
Watch our Novartis-funded panel discuss… the importance of two-way dialogue in breast cancer care.
Biomarkers guide
Read the biomarkers guide to understand the role they play in treatment options.
