How to best treat multiple nodules in the breast

  In the clinic, we encounter many patients with breast ultrasound slips that show multiple hypoechoic breasts and ask if there is a good treatment. Most of them go around and get surgery, only open surgery or minimally invasive surgery. But patients have a lot of confusion: Can they be removed cleanly? Is there a high recurrence rate after surgery? Is surgery necessary? Can these nodules be eliminated by simply taking Chinese medicine? Is it dangerous to have so many nodules?  In fact, multiple nodules in the breast is a common disease in mammography, and is not considered a difficult disease. Many of these nodules are hyperplastic in nature, formed by long-term malignant hyperplasia, while solid nodules like fibroadenomas are not common. Western medicine believes that these nodules are mainly formed by long-term stimulation of the breast glands by estrogen, which cannot be addressed at the root by Western medicine. In contrast, TCM believes that most of the nodules of hyperplastic nature are formed by the patient’s long-term imbalance of flushing, liver and spleen, resulting in the interconnection of phlegm and stasis.  After we apply these methods of treatment and review the ultrasound, if there are still one or two individual nodules remaining, then this is a true indication for surgery and it is necessary to remove them surgically. The recurrence rate after surgery is very low because preoperative treatment to control the hyperplasia has already been performed. Even if the postoperative pathology confirms that it is a hyperplasia, at the very least we can be sure that the nodule is vigorously growing and may have a risk of malignancy. In clinical practice, we have applied this method to detect a number of precancerous lesions – atypical hyperplasia.  Therefore, treating multiple nodules and multiple small lumps in the breast, applying the comprehensive treatment method of TCM to control the hyperplasia first, not only has the chance to avoid surgery or reduce the trauma of surgery, but also can effectively prevent the recurrence after surgery and completely cure the disease, therefore, this one systematic treatment method should be an optimal treatment choice.