One of the areas that has been improved upon and expanded in breast cancer treatment is the use of drugs. The only drug treatments that used to be used were chemotherapy and hormone treatments.

Over the past few years, researchers have discovered drugs that have shown a lot of promise, and results, when it comes to treating breast cancer. For women with breast cancer who have too much of the protein HER2 in their system, the drug Herceptin has been shown to to be effective.

HER2 can quicken the growth of tumors, and Herceptin will attach itself to HER2 and kill cancer cells. Studies have shown that HER2 will normally leave healthy cells alone, thus making it safe to use along with chemotherapy.