developing shingles may be lower, and here’s why.
When it comes to the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, there is more than one type of treatment to get rid of it.
The first is hormonal therapy. When diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, doctors usually start the patient off with hormonal and targeted therapy.
If the first type of hormonal and targeted therapy does not work, doctors will try other types of this treatment.
If none of the hormonal and targeted therapy treatments work to kill the cancer cells, doctors will then call for chemotherapy. So if you are living with metastatic breast cancer and hormonal and targeted therapy works for you, your chances of developing shingles are lower than other cancer patients who rely more on chemotherapy.
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Is There A Way To Prevent Shingles?
The only real way to prevent shingles is through the shingles vaccination. There aren’t any lifestyle changes that you can do to prevent shingles, especially if you are someone with a weakened immune system.
Though shingles are mostly seen in people 50 and older, anyone can develop shingles but again some people are at a higher risk of developing it.
If you are someone living with stage 4 breast cancer and in the midst or have already undergone treatment, talk to your doctor about how the shingles vaccine may benefit you. Living with breast cancer is already a lot so let’s not let shingles make it worse.