Positive Diagnosis
Is it necessary to get treatment immediately after diagnosis?
No. Immediate or very early treatment does not necessarily mean better treatment. Every woman diagnosed with breast cancer should take the time to seek the best treatment options available.
Women whose breast cancers are treated surgically within a month of diagnosis do not have a higher recovery rate than women whose cancers are treated at a later date. In fact, the recovery rate is lower for the most quickly treated cancers. (This seeming contradiction may be explained by the fact that the most serious cancers -- the aggressive cancers and late-stage cancers that have the worst prognosis -- are easier to spot and diagnose and therefore tend to be referred for surgery more rapidly.) There is absolutely no difference in the long-term cancer survival rate for women with cancers treated one to two months after diagnosis, two to three months later, or more than three months later. "Early" is a characteristic of the cancer itself, not of whether it's diagnosed and treated this month or next, or the one after that. The goal is good treatment, not instant treatment.
What treatments are available?
Early detection of invasive breast cancer is pointless unless it's followed by proper treatment. More important than immediate treatment is appropriate and good treatment. The diagnosis of breast cancer is not a medical emergency. A woman with a newly diagnosed breast cancer has all the time she needs to seek a referral to a specialist in breast treatment, to learn about her treatment options, and to decide which of them is the one that she prefers.
For a list of National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers, click here.
