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Breast Cancer Doctors and Specialists
Selecting a doctor to treat your breast cancer may be one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Your primary care doctor may refer you to one or more specialists. These specialists include surgeons, medical oncologists, plastic surgeons, and radiation oncologists. These doctors often work together as a team.
Why Do I Need So Many Doctors to Treat Breast Cancer?
If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, your chances for getting the best possible results are greatest when you're first diagnosed. Because of this, it's very important that all cancer specialists involved in your diagnosis and treatment participate in discussions that will determine the strategy for your breast cancer care.
What Is a Specialist?
Specialists are doctors who have completed their residency training in a specific area of medicine. After finishing the education and training needed for their specialty, they must pass an exam given by the specialty board. Doctors who meet all of the requirements for their specialty and pass the national board exams are given the status of "diplomate." They are now board-certified specialists in their fields. Doctors who have not completed the specialty board exam are "board-eligible," but are not yet specialists.
A specialist can become a subspecialist as well. To do this, the doctor must take at least one additional year of full-time education in a particular area of a specialty. He or she can then become board-certified in the subspecialty, too.
Should I Look for a Board-Certified Cancer Specialist?
Board certification, or the international equivalent, is a sign that a doctor is highly trained in his or her field. Several fields related to cancer care have national boards that are responsible for setting standards that doctors must meet in order to be certified. However, board certification does not exist for some of the specialties that are important in cancer treatment. Doctors who practice in these specialties are board-certified in a broader field. For example, no board certification exists for breast cancer surgery. Surgeons performing these procedures, however, should be board-certified in general surgery, which gives them the basic skills needed to perform breast surgery.
If doctors practice in specialties that do not have national boards, additional training, such as fellowships and years of experience related to cancer diagnosis and treatment, are usually good measures of their qualifications.
WebMD Medical Reference
Breast Cancer Guide
VIVELLE-DOT (estradiol transdermal system) IS AVAILABLE BY PRESCRPTION ONLY.
INDICATION
Vivelle-Dot is used after menopause to: reduce moderate to severe hot flashes; treat moderate to severe dryness, itching and burning in or around the vagina; help reduce your chances of getting osteoporosis (thin weak bones); and treat certain conditions in which a young woman's ovaries do not produce enough estrogens naturally. Vivelle-Dot 0.025 mg/day is only used to prevent osteoporosis from menopause. If you use Vivelle-Dot only to treat your dryness, itching, and burning in and around your vagina or if you use Vivelle-Dot only to prevent osteoporosis from menopause, talk with your healthcare professional about whether a different treatment or medicine without estrogens might be better for you.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Estrogens increase the chances of getting cancer of the uterus (womb). Report any unusual vaginal bleeding right away while you are taking estrogens. Vaginal bleeding after menopause may be a warning sign of cancer of the uterus (womb).
Do not use estrogens with or without progestins to prevent heart disease, heart attacks, or strokes. Using estrogens with or without progestins may increase your chances of getting heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, and blood clots. Using estrogens with progestins may increase your risk of dementia (decline in memory and thinking skills).
Vivelle-Dot should not be used if you have unusual vaginal bleeding; currently have or have had certain cancers, including cancer of the breast or uterus; had a stroke or heart attack in the recent past (for example, in the past year); currently have or have had blood clots; currently have or have had liver problems; or think you may be, or know that you are, pregnant.
The most common side effects that may occur with Vivelle-Dot are headache, breast tenderness, and back pain.
You and your healthcare professional should talk regularly about whether you still need treatment with Vivelle-Dot.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Please see Full Prescribing Information for Vivelle-Dot.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a new study reveals why a high number of women with the disease still prefer to have the entire breast surgically removed instead of just the tumor. It's not always because doctors recommend it.
