The treatment of the disease depends on the tumour type and the stage of disease - how far it has spread to involve either lymph glands or other organs in the body. There are various ways a cancer can be staged and classified. A simple way of staging or classifying breast cancer is to divide it into three groups.
Early or operable breast cancerThis describes cancer that is confined to the breast and/or the lymph glands in the axilla (arm pit) on the same side of the body
Locally advanced breast cancerThis has not apparently spread beyond the breast and axillary lymph glands but involves the skin or the chest wall of the breast. These cancers tend to have a worse outlook than early breast cancer and are usually best initially treated by drug therapy or radiotherapy rather than surgery. In locally advanced breast cancer the skin of the breast can either be directly involved by cancer or it is swollen or red. These changes occur because cancer cells get into the fluid channels that drain the breast (lymphatics) and block them, which causes the skin of the breast to be swollen and look like the skin of an orange (peau d'orange). Locally advanced breast cancers were initially treated with surgery but this treatment was successful in only about 30 per cent of patients. In the remainder, the cancer recurred in the areas immediately next to where the surgery was performed
Advanced breast cancerThis is where the cancer has spread beyond the breast and arm pit to other parts or organs of the body such as lymph glands in the neck, bone, lungs, liver and brain.