Additional treatment options

Your highly skilled breast cancer team can employ other state-of-the-art treatment options, based on your individualized treatment plan. Some of these options can include:

Clinical trials

City of Hope offers clinical trials as part of our commitment to bringing patients new and innovative cancer treatment options, especially for patients with advanced cancer or who may have run out of standard-of-care approaches. The research team at City of Hope carefully identifies and studies new and emerging treatment options that are supported by scientific and investigational research. Your care team will work with you to determine if you qualify for an existing trial, and if so, will help you enroll. 

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy is a form of systemic therapy that works to add, block or remove hormones from the body to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells. The two most common types of breast cancer hormone therapy are: selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and aromatase inhibitors.

Targeted therapy

In addition to chemotherapy, biological response drugs may be recommended to treat breast tumors that produce a protein called HER2. If laboratory testing reveals the HER2 gene in cancer cells, targeted medications may help shut down the HER2 gene, cutting off the energy supply to cancer cells.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer and is a promising treatment for some types of breast cancer, including advanced and invasive forms of the disease. Immunotherapy may be used alone or in conjunction with other treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. A common immunotherapy drug prescribed for breast cancer is Herceptin because it binds with specific proteins on breast cancer cells to slow or stop their growth.