Surgical treatment
Surgical resection is currently the primary treatment for all solid tumors with a wide range of indications, and breast cancer is no exception.
The treatment of choice for breast cancer patients with only local or regional lymph node metastases is surgery. According to statistics, the 5-year survival rate after radical excision only for breast cancer is about 50% and the 10-year survival rate is about 30%. In recent years, the 5-year survival rate for radical resection has exceeded 80% for early stage cases without axillary lymph node metastasis.
There are many different surgical options for breast cancer, and part of the surgeon’s job is to determine the most appropriate procedure for each patient based on the type of tumor.
The basic principle of surgical treatment of breast cancer is therefore to perform a surgical procedure that has the highest cure rate with the least impact on the appearance and function of the breast.
Endocrine therapy
Hormone therapy, because the breast is a target organ for sex hormones, is very sensitive to the systemic endocrine environment. Endocrine therapy does not significantly damage normal tissues, but endocrine therapy is not indicated for all breast cancer patients.
Studies have found that about 60-70% of patients have estrogen receptor expression in their cancer cells, which are also known as hormone-dependent cancer cells. The growth of hormone-dependent cancer cells is strongly associated with the presence of estrogen receptors. In patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, the application of estrogen antagonist drugs can achieve better cancer suppression, with an efficiency of about 60%, while the efficiency of receptor-negative patients is only about 10%.
Triamcinolone acetonide is commonly used as an estrogen antagonist in premenopausal patients, whereas aromatase inhibitors are used in postmenopausal patients.
Chinese herbal medicine treatment
Chinese herbal medicine is considered one of the top five current tools for cancer prevention and treatment, along with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.
There are several studies and explorations in clinical, experimental, preventive, prescription and diagnostic aspects of Chinese herbal medicine and the combination of Chinese and Western medicine in the prevention and treatment of tumors unique to China, especially as one of the adjuvant treatments for cancer, which can play a role in improving the quality of survival of cancer patients, reducing the toxic side effects of radiotherapy, and sensitizing to radiotherapy in many ways.