The Advancements In Breast Cancer Care: A Brief History

The Middle Ages

Unfortunately, due to the middle ages and emerging religious philosophies, medical progress stalled. Early Christians adopted a “faith healing” approach, choosing to believe in miracles over surgery, which many considered barbaric. However, Islamic and Arab physicians tried to revive Greek medicine, translating and saving medical knowledge to continue to study the disease. Many of these physicians focused on spreading this medical knowledge to help expand their reach, thus helping to expand their conquests as well. In fact, the use of caustic pastes to annihilate tumors and make them operable is similar to the use of chemotherapy for breast cancer today.

The Renaissance Era

Luckily, we see another resurgence in breast cancer care happening around the 16th century. This is when we see surgery go from a barber’s trade and expertise, to emerging scientists studying human anatomy. For example, John Hunter (coined the Scottish ‘father’ of investigative surgery) replaced ‘black bile’ with lymph as the cause of breast cancer. Other theories, including body or mental trauma, personality type, and exposure to infections, were also listed as potential causes of cancer. Many surgeries, including lumpectomies to what we would now call a mastectomy, were completed and logged into medical records. And just as a reminder, these were often completed without anesthesia. But many took the surgeries in hope for relief and even cures.

The Golden Age of Surgery & Treatments

In 1937, Geoffrey Keynes, a British surgeon, found that inserting radium-containing needles into a breast cancer tumor caused it to shrink. He then suggested that people with breast cancer might not always need a radical mastectomy. This combination of limited surgeries (like lumpectomies) and radiation have become what we now use a primary treatment for breast cancer, trying to avoid damage to the breast as a whole while treating the tumor. 

In 1941, the Canadian researcher Dr. Charles B. Huggins made his own strides in cancer research when he discovered that lowering testosterone production or increasing estrogen production caused prostate tumors to regress.Throughout the 50s and 60s, he studied the effect of those hormones on breast cancer and found that the opposite was true and that mammary tumors used estrogen to grow. This discovery is how hormonal therapy as a treatment option was developed, and we still use it today. 

Last but not least, in 1951, Dr. Jane C. Wright, a surgeon and ASCO co-founder, studied methotrexate, an antimetabolite drug administered during chemotherapy, and it’s effect on cancerous tissue in both breast and skin cancer cases. She found that it was an effective tool in shrinking tumors. Even now, methotrexate is used to treat a wide range of cancers through chemotherapy, thus increasing success rates. 

The 1960s to Early 2000s

Of course, the 50s weren’t the last time we had large advancements in breast cancer care and treatment. In 1966, radiologist Dr. Philip Strax concluded a clinical trial that evaluated the effectiveness of mammograms and breast examinations on cancer detection rates. His findings reported that mammograms help detect breast cancer earlier, leading to the adoption of mammograms as a key tool for breast cancer detection. 

Then, in 1978, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the antiestrogen drug tamoxifen for use in treating breast cancer. While it was originally developed as a birth control method, it also prevented cancer cells from absorbing estrogen, which in turn prevents them from growing. Tamoxifen (and other SERMs) are still used today in breast cancer treatment. 

During the 80s and 90s, scientists were able to make great strides in understanding the HER2, BRCA1, and BRCA2 genes. This led to being able to clone them for the first time so researchers were able to more easily study them, and aided in our understanding of why certain cancer forms and how to best treat and prevent it. And, in 1998, the FDA approved Herceptin (trastuzumab) for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer treatment. It was a revolutionary advancement as the first monoclonal antibody therapy targeted specifically to a genetic alteration (HER2 gene). Many patients (including our wonderful co-founder of The Tutu Project, Linda) found great success in the treatment and credit it with the reason they’re still alive today. 

Where We Are Now

Medications

So where are we now? Since the 90s, we’ve made even more significant discoveries and breakthroughs in breast cancer care. One of the biggest breakthroughs was tamoxifen and raloxifene being used as breast cancer prevention medications (2006). Then in 2011, the FDA’s approval of 3D mammography (digital breast tomosynthesis) became the standard of care. Many studies showed that 3D mammograms detected 41% more invasive breast cancers than traditional 2D mammograms, which means a faster is more accurate diagnosis. 

In the last 20 years, breast cancer has also been looked at as a disease with multiple subtypes. Instead of a once size fits all approach, this method helps care teams tailor breast cancer treatment to each individual person. The hope is that by doing this, they can help patients not only survive, but treat cancer without all of the side effects.

Some of those targeted therapies include the development and approval of numerous drugs designed to interfere with specific molecular pathways. Pertuzumab (Perjeta), was approved in 2012, and works with trastuzumab (Herceptin) to target the HER2 protein in breast cancer cells specifically. Then, CDK4/6 inhibitors like palbociclib (Ibrance) (2015) revolutionized the treatment of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer. Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) are now used to stimulate the body’s immune system to attack and kill cancer cells, and have had significant success in treating more aggressive types of breast cancer, like triple-negative breast cancer.

Surgical Procedures

And that’s not all! Along with medications, there has been improvement in surgical procedures as well. Gone are the days where a doctor would just amputate your breasts without anesthetics. Surgical techniques like nipple-sparing mastectomies, microsurgery, and nerve preserving mastectomies are making these procedures less invasive and with better outcomes (both physically and mentally) for many patients.

We also have the sentinel lymph node technique. This focuses on the first lymph nodes where cancer could spread. By focusing on those, doctors are able to remove fewer lymph nodes, thus lowering the potential of long-term complications like chronic lymphedema, painful scar tissue, and reduced mobility.

Other Therapies

Along with medications and surgical procedures, therapies like radiation have changed too. Many studies have shown that shorter courses of radiation and more targeted forms of radiation therapy can be just as effective as longer courses of radiation. Some surgeons even include intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) during surgery for some patients.

Breast Cancer Care: 2026 & Beyond

With so many advancements, where do we go from here? Let’s talk about it.

2025 Advancements

2025 was an incredible year for medical breakthroughs, for breast cancer and other cancers. Of course, many of these medications and therapies still need to be observed going forward, but strides are being made.

In 2025 alone, the FDA approved more than a dozen new drugs for different cancers, some including:

• Belzutifan (Welireg), which was approved for kidney cancer. .
• Cabozantinib (Cabometyx and Cometriq), approved for neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas or elsewhere.
• Dordaviprone (Modeyso), was approved to treat adults and children 1 year+ with recurrent H3 K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma (DMG)