SPEAKER: To treat your advanced HER2 negative breast cancer, your doctor will try one or more different treatments based on your medical history and the genetic makeup of your cancer. You may need surgery to remove the cancer, like a lumpectomy or mastectomy, along with one or more other therapies.

Chemotherapy drugs work by killing fast-growing cancer cells anywhere in your body. Chemotherapy may be given before surgery to shrink a large tumor or after to keep it from coming back. Some breast cancers also have receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which help cancer cells grow. These therapies work either by blocking these hormones from attaching to cancer cells or by lowering how much of these hormones her body makes.

Immunotherapy drugs use your own immune cells to find and kill cancer cells that can normally hide from your immune system. If your cancer is hormone-receptor positive, targeted therapy drugs attack unique characteristics within cancer cells, like specific proteins that help them grow. Research on new treatments is always moving forward. Ask your doctor about clinical trials that might be right for you.