A: Women who are under age 40 sometimes receive more aggressive
surgery because their breast cancer may be more difficult to
treat. However, research now shows that younger women with stage
I or stage II disease who choose lumpectomy instead of
mastectomy under the advice of their doctors have about the same
risk of recurrence as older patients also treated by lumpectomy.
The surgery must be followed by radiation. You and your surgeon
should talk fully and openly about your options. Seeking a
second opinion often helps with treatment decision-making. A:
Tamoxifen is a hormonal treatment that works by blocking
estrogen receptors on breast cancer cells that grow when
estrogen is present. This helps lower the risk of developing
hormone-sensitive breast cancers. When tamoxifen was first used,
research measured its benefits only in postmenopausal women with
hormone-sensitive breast cancers. More recently, studies show it
is effective in younger, premenopausal women with lymph-node
positive, estrogen-receptor posit