Breast Cancer: The Past, the Present, and a Look Towards the Future.

Abstract

Breast cancer is a multifactorial and complicated disease with many risk factors, subcategories, and therapy options. The current methods of therapy cause great harm to the woman they are attempting to heal and their success in healing is inconsistent. Researchers disagree on which treatment options are most successful for each subclass of breast cancer. Tamoxifen, for example, is regarded by some as a highly successful therapy for estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers. Other researchers however, think Tamoxifen does more harm than it does good and should not be used. This is one of several similar controversies discussed in this thesis (other include whether estrogen should be upregulated or down-regulated, whether self and clinical breast screening are beneficial or dangerous etc.). The thesis will address the many opinions surrounding important decisions in breast cancer treatment and suggest that a more systemized method (genomic screening) should be used to determine when each treatment option will be successful and when it will be resisted. It will also suggest future success trends in breast cancer treatment, mainly the development of the immunotherapy treatment method which will reduce resistance and harsh side effects and promote successful healing in even the most challenging cases.