Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

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The physicians at Fred Hutch Cancer Center have many chemotherapy options for both early-stage and advanced breast cancers.

Chemotherapy uses medicines to kill fast-growing cells (like cancer cells) or to keep them from dividing (which is how cancers grow). Your breast medical oncologist prescribes your chemotherapy and other medicine-based treatments. They also set your treatment schedule. 

Breast Cancer Care Tailored to You

You and your family are our top priority. At Fred Hutch Cancer Center, we offer comprehensive and compassionate care — personalized to you. You'll have access to the latest treatment options, clinical trials and supportive care services. 

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How Chemotherapy Is Used to Treat Breast Cancer 

Your care team may recommend having chemotherapy before or after surgery to remove your cancer or as one of your treatments if surgery isn’t a good option for you. 

Chemotherapy Before Surgery

If you are having surgery, your Fred Hutch care team may recommend chemotherapy, targeted therapy or both before surgery. This is done to shrink your tumor. Shrinking the tumor might mean you can avoid a mastectomy. Instead, you might be able to have a lumpectomy.

Having chemotherapy before surgery may be the best choice if any of these is true:

  • The tumor is too large to remove with surgery alone. 
  • You have inflammatory breast cancer or another type of breast cancer that is aggressive or locally advanced. (This means it involves tissue outside but near your breast, like skin or many lymph nodes.)

Chemotherapy After Surgery

Most people start chemotherapy after they have surgery. If you have early-stage breast cancer, you will probably have four to six cycles of treatment. (Early stage means it is not outside your breast and nearby lymph nodes.) The goal is to keep your cancer from coming back.

Chemotherapy may reduce the risk of cancer coming back by 30-50%.

Chemotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer

If cancer has spread beyond your breast to distant parts of your body, physicians often recommend systemic therapies — which include chemotherapy, hormone therapy and targeted therapies — without surgery. Systemic therapies travel throughout your body and fight cancer cells wherever they may be.

The goal is to give you the longest, healthiest life. If your medicine stops working or the side effects are too difficult, you have other options. The next step is to look at switching to another medicine. 

Dr. Lynn Symonds
Dr. Lynn Symonds is clinical co-director of the Fred Hutch Breast Oncology Program.

Why Choose Fred Hutch for Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

At Fred Hutch, you get medical oncology care from leading physicians who specialize in breast cancer. Different breast cancers start, progress and respond to treatments in different ways. They are experts in their field and know how to choose, combine and schedule your treatments based on what works for your situation. 

We often have clinical trials testing new drugs or new combinations of drugs for breast cancer. So, we can offer you therapies that aren’t offered everywhere.

Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer FAQ

Chemotherapy can be given by infusion or by mouth. For an infusion, liquid medicine is put into a vein through an intravenous (IV) line. This can be a line in your arm (peripheral venous catheter) or a port in your chest (central venous catheter). Cancer nurses who are experts in infusions give you these treatments. They will also watch over you during the treatment. They will help with any medical issues that come up and will keep you comfortable.

Some types of chemotherapy are given as a pill that you take at home. 

Common chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer include:

  • Anthracyclines (doxorubicin, liposomal doxorubicin and epirubicin)
  • Capecitabine
  • Cyclophosphamide
  • Eribulin
  • Fluorouracil (5-FU)
  • Gemcitabine
  • Ixabepilone
  • Methotrexate
  • Platinum agents (cisplatin or carboplatin)
  • Taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel and albumin-bound paclitaxel)

In some cases, more than one chemotherapy drug is used as part of a treatment plan. Your Fred Hutch medical oncologist will explain which drug combination will be the most effective for your cancer stage and situation. 

Fatigue is the most common side effect. Other side effects may include:

  • Hair loss
  • Mouth sores
  • Nausea

If your Fred Hutch care team recommends chemotherapy, we’ll explain what to expect based on the medicine you’re getting.

Your care team at Fred Hutch is here to help you prevent or prepare for side effects and to relieve any side effects you have. The most important step you can take is to speak up and let your team know what you’re feeling. We’ve helped many patients and families through this process and know ways to ease your experience. The Fred Hutch Patient Education team has video resources that go over how to keep common side effects at bay.

Often, there are medicines to help, like anti-nausea drugs. Based on the side effect, there may be a range of other helpful options too, like diet changes, physical therapy and emotional and practical support. We also offer integrative medicine, including acupuncture.