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University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute

Since cancers begin in different ways, are located in different parts of the body, and have different ways of spreading, cancer treatments come in several different forms. Some new cancer treatments, like Proton Therapy, eradicate tumors with fewer cancer treatment side effects.

Florida Proton Therapy Cancer Patients
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Breast Cancer

In the U.S., breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with 185,000 new cases each year and it's second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in women.

Most breast cancers begin in the inner layer of the breast duct. At first, the cancer cells multiply and fill up the hollow space in the duct. Then, as cells die, calcium is deposited in areas of the breast, which can be detected during a mammography. As the cancer grows, it destroys the outer layers of the ducts and invades the connective tissue. Cancer cells then distort the connective tissue, creating a lump that can be felt on physical examination.

Once the disease has invaded the breast's connective tissue, cancer cells may move to the lymph nodes and spread to the blood vessels and sites like the bones, liver, lungs, or brain. Diagnosing breast cancer requires a biopsy that can be done either by a mammographer or surgeon.

Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy are all effective breast cancer treatments. When the disease is non-invasive (has not broken through the outer layer of the breast duct) usually local treatment, which can consist of surgery with or without radiation therapy, is usually enough to treat the cancer. In the early stages of breast cancer, radiation therapy is used, and the lump may be surgically removed (lumpectomy). In more advanced stages of breast cancer, removal of the entire breast or mastectomy may be necessary, and is usually paired with radiation therapy.

Any time breast cancer is invasive, it may spread to lymph nodes or other areas of the body. To determine if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, the first node beneath the arm - called the sentinel node - is removed for biopsy. If the biopsy is negative, no further lymphatic surgery is necessary. However, if the lymph node is positive for tumor cells, it may be necessary to remove the remaining lymph nodes under the arm, which carries some risk for arm swelling. Several tools are used to determine if breast cancer has spread. They include CT scans of the chest and abdomen, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, bone scans and PET-CT (posititron emission tomography). If the chance of spread is considered significant, systemic therapy consisting of chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy, may also be recommended.

Survival rates of early stage breast cancer treated with local surgery and conventional radiation are excellent. Better still, there are very few treatment side effects. In advanced breast cancer, where cancer has spread to regional lymph nodes, proton therapy may be beneficial in delivering high doses of radiation to the lymph nodes that are close to the heart, lung, or brachial plexus (nerves that enervate the arm).

The University of Florida Department of Radiation Oncology has a 30-year history of clinical research, and plans to develop protocols for the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer.

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