The breast is comprised of organs called lobules that can make drain and thin tubes called conduits that convey the drain from the lobules to the nipple. Breast tissue likewise contains lymph nodes, fat and connective tissue, arteries and veins. Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the cells of the lobules or in the different tissues of the breast. The cancer may be of various types. Breast cancer that has spread from where it started in the pipes or lobules to encompassing tissue is called intrusive breast cancer. In incendiary breast cancer, the breast looks red and swollen and feels warm on the grounds that the tumor cells hinder the lymph vessels in the skin.

Hormone therapy — perhaps more properly termed hormone-blocking therapy — is often used to treat breast cancers that are sensitive to hormones. Doctors sometimes refer to these cancers as estrogen receptor positive (ER positive) and progesterone receptor positive (PR positive) cancers.

Hormone therapy can be used before or after surgery or other treatments to decrease the chance of your cancer returning. If the cancer has already spread, hormone therapy may shrink and control it.

Treatments that can be used in hormone therapy include:

• Medications that block hormones from attaching to cancer cells (selective estrogen receptor modulators)
• Medications that stop the body from making estrogen after menopause (aromatase inhibitors)
• Surgery or medications to stop hormone production in the ovaries