There are many chemotherapy regimens for breast cancer patients. There are many stages of the disease and the regimen decided by the doctor depends on the type and stage of breast cancer. The treatment can also be individualized to suit the need of the patient. Although an early detection of the disease gives better chances to patients for disease free survival, these days several new drugs have been developed that help fight cancer. However, as there are many types of breast cancer, your oncologists will help you decide the best treatment options available. For example, the treatment for triple negative breast cancer will be quite different from treatment given for HER2 Positive breast cancer or inflammatory breast cancer. Most of the drugs used for the treatment of breast cancer are given in combination with other drugs.

Here’s a list of the common Chemotherapy regimens:

• Taxol/Taxotere + Cytoxan: This is also called TC chemotherapy. In this regimen, the two drugs administered are Taxol or Taxotere and Cytoxan. Many doctors these days prefer TC chemotherapy over the AC regimen, which has been a standard therapy of many years.
• AC Chemotherapy: AC Chemotherapy is the most common drug prescribed with another drug. It is mostly taken in combination and given to women who are node-negative.
• AC + Taxol /Taxotere: Out of five most common types of chemotherapy given to women, ACT chemotherapy is one of them. It includes mainly two drugs which is, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). Women who have node-positive cancer or who chances of recurrence are usually given this regimen.
• AT Chemotherapy: In women whose cancer has spread to one or more lymph nodes (also termed as node-positive breast cancer), AT chemotherapy is given to them. This therapy includes two drugs namely, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and Paclitaxel (Taxol) or docetaxel (Taxotere).

• FEC-T Chemotherapy: There are many patients in whom breast cancer is detected at an early stage and is operable. These patients are given FEC-T chemotherapy. In this regimen, Taxotere (docetaxel) is added to fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide.

Some more regimens for breast cancer:

• CAF Chemotherapy: CAF is a three drug therapy namely cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and fluoroucil (5 FU). It is also called FAC. This combination is a bit unusual but it is known to be effective with node-negative and node-positive breast cancer among women.
• CMF Chemotherapy: This is again a three-drug cocktail, similar to CAF. Like CAF, CMF is effective for both node-positive and node-negative breast cancer. The drugs used in this regimen are cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and fluoroucil.
• EC Chemotherapy: EC is a two drug combination which might be given to patients in case the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. EC stand for epirubicin and cyclophosphamide or Ellence Cytoxan.
• FEC Chemotherapy: FEC is another common chemotherapy given to women with a combination of drugs for node-positive breast cancer. The drugs used in this regimen are 5 FU, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide. This chemotherapy for breast cancer is used for usually for patients who have cancer in the primary stages and for some patients in the secondary stages. Most of the chemotherapy regimens for breast cancer are taken in combination. There is a possibility that while the drug is taken, patients might experience some side effects. It is therefore recommended that the patients ask the doctors about the possible side effects they might experience during the course of the treatment. The side effects are just temporary and in most cases, they disappear once the treatment is over. If a patient is unable to tolerate the toxicity of these drugs and experience severe side effects during the treatment, the oncologist might consider stopping chemotherapy for a while till the body gets adjusted with the prescribed drugs and resumed later. In some cases, another combination of drugs is used if the patient’s body does not respond to a regimen.