**3. Treatment of breast cancer**

To understand the diagnostic needs for breast cancer, it is important to understand the range of approaches for breast cancer treatment. With the exception of early and late stage disease, almost all breast cancer therapy methods, involve a combination of locoregional and systemic treatments. Locoregional therapy includes surgery and radiotherapy and systemic therapy includes chemotherapy, hormone therapy and targeted therapy. Because the breast cancer, that is metastatic beyond the regional node, is rarely cured, systemic therapy is the primary treatment for metastatic disease with locoregional treatment reserved for symptom control and is used possibly in some patients with limited metastatic disease who may achieve prolonged remissions.
