Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in women, known as “breast rock” in ancient times. The incidence of breast cancer is relatively higher in women with no history of childbirth or breastfeeding, women with early menstruation or late menopause, and women with a family history of breast cancer, while breast cancer is less common in men. It is characterized by a painless, non-heated, hard lump of unchanging skin color that does not move when pushed, with an unsmooth, uneven surface, or with overflowing blood from the nipple and ulceration in the late stage. People with weak constitution are prone to this disease, and internal injury of emotion and depression is an important factor in its development.
Pathogenesis
The occurrence, recurrence and metastasis of breast cancer are greatly related to the deficiency of the body’s righteousness and the body’s ability to resist the external evil toxins. Once breast cancer is detected, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are mostly used for treatment. Although the cancer has been removed or controlled, the body has been damaged to a certain extent, which leads to the damage of positive energy and low ability to resist disease, and cannot inhibit the growth and metastasis of cancer cells, thus affecting the prognosis and quality of life. Although the radical surgery of breast cancer has removed the cancer foci, the cancer cells and toxins have already invaded or remained in the bloodstream, which is one of the evil stagnation; radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery, which continue to disturb the drug toxicity, is the second evil stagnation; the metabolism of the patient’s body continues to produce dampness, heat, phlegm and phlegm stagnation as poison, which is the third evil stagnation. Therefore, post-operative breast cancer is characterized by deficiency of kidney qi, dysregulation of flushing, deficiency of liver, spleen and kidney, while liver qi stagnation, spleen failure, qi stagnation, blood stasis, phlegm stagnation and toxicity are the symptoms.
Clinical manifestations
Painless breast lumps are the first symptom of most breast cancer patients, accounting for about 95-98. The most common site of lumps is the upper outer part of the breast, followed by the inner part. Most of the lumps are solitary, movable in the early and middle stages, but fixed in the late stage. Most of the masses are hard in texture and have unclear borders to the touch. When peripheral infiltration occurs, they can adhere to the epidermis and cause skin depression, pulling and “orange peel” changes.
Some of the malignant tumors can be painful, mainly pulling pain, dull pain and radiating pain. Invagination, pulling, and deviation of the nipple are also typical manifestations. The mass is often found at the direction of the pulled and can be detected on palpation.
Single ductal overflow of blood from the nipple is also an intraductal lesion, but special attention should be paid to breast cancer. Having the above mentioned manifestations plus or having enlarged axillary lymph nodes can be said to be a more typical clinical manifestation of breast cancer. With the development of infiltration of the cancer, pain, skin and shape changes of the breast, lumps fixed and immobile, nipple overflow, generalized wasting, and metastasis of axillary lymph nodes and supraclavicular lymph nodes can occur. In late stage, symptoms of hematogenous metastasis and metastatic organ damage appear.
Treatment
For the treatment of breast cancer, ancient medical practitioners attach importance to the identification of breast cancer, and nowadays they advocate early surgery of breast cancer, and attach importance to the identification of breast cancer treatment after surgery, most of those who are clinically diagnosed have already undergone radical breast cancer surgery. Therefore, the focus of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment should be shifted to post-operative, radiotherapy and chemotherapy or after radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Therefore, the focus of treatment for breast cancer should be shifted to postoperative, radiotherapy and chemotherapy or after radiotherapy. To support the righteousness is a treatment principle to support the body’s righteousness, strengthen the body’s constitution, and improve the body’s ability to resist evil and disease. To dispel evil is a treatment principle to eliminate evil qi, to exclude or weaken the invasion and damage of the body.
According to literature data, 70% of 100 patients with recurrent metastases occurred within 2 years after surgery. According to the analysis, during this period, patients experienced major surgical trauma and damage by radiotherapy, plus endocrine therapy on the body’s endocrine metabolism and other internal environment interference, the overall weakness is the main, coupled with the long passage of years, many worries and efforts, the mental pressure of young and middle-aged patients, the burden of household chores of middle-aged and elderly patients, and do not pay attention to the regulation, the righteousness is frustrated, the dormant evil toxins are easy to contain and run. Therefore, the treatment of “helping the righteous to dispel the evil” should focus on “helping the righteous”, so that the body’s yin and yang, qi and blood, organs and meridians to achieve balance and coordination, so that the righteous energy to restore, to achieve the righteous victory over the evil, “the righteous energy within, the evil can not dry “This will improve the quality of life, reduce the rate of recurrence and metastasis, and increase the survival rate.
Food therapy prescription
The basic theory of Chinese medicine since Shennong’s Classic of the Materia Medica has always taken “medicine and food come from the same source, and medicine and food are used together” as an important point of view in the prevention and treatment of diseases. For malignant tumors such as breast cancer, a reasonable and suitable diet can increase the nutrition of human body and improve the effect of anti-cancer drugs, which has the effect of “pleasing the mind and refreshing the spirit, so as to replenish the qi and blood”. After the formation of breast cancer, a large amount of nutrients are consumed by human body, coupled with the spleen being injured by worries and thoughts, digestion and absorption dysfunction, especially after surgery or radiotherapy or chemotherapy, the vital energy is greatly injured and there is a deficit of both qi and yin, so light and easily digestible tonic foods are recommended.
Foods that are clear tonic mainly include yam, lotus seed, lily, turtle, duck egg, cow’s milk, coix seed, etc.
Warm tonic foods include mutton, beef, dog meat, chicken, pigeon, eel, sea cucumber, cinnamon, lychee, glutinous rice, etc.
The food products that are good for stomach and blood, such as fresh ginger juice, sugar cane juice, fresh juice, mulberry juice, Buddha’s hand, tomato, black stalk rice, white lentils, lingzhi, black fungus, sunflower seeds, lily, mushrooms, turtle, uggs, purple river carrot, cinnamon meat and red dates, etc.
Mushrooms, especially mushrooms, are rich in polysaccharides, essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, which are all suitable for breast cancer patients.
Here are some recommended dietary recipes for breast cancer for reference.
1.Tianmen Dong tea
Ingredients: 8 grams of asparagus and 2 grams of green tea.
Preparation: Wash and dry asparagus, cut it into slices, put it into a cup with green tea, brew it with boiling water, cover it with a lid and bore it for 15 minutes to drink.
Dosage: drink as a substitute for tea, generally brewed 3 to 5 times, drink to the end, asparagus tablets can be chewed and swallowed at the same time.
Effects: Nourishing Yin, clearing fire, moistening dryness, preventing cancer and fighting cancer. It is suitable for early stage breast cancer.
2.Astragalus congee with angelica
Ingredients: 10 grams of angelica, 10 grams of roasted astragalus, 250 grams of round-grained rice and 15 grams of sugar.
Preparation: Decoct Angelica sinensis and Astragalus membranaceus with water to get the juice, add sugar to melt into sugar liquid and set aside. Another will be cleaned japonica rice, add the right amount of water to boil, when the rice is almost cooked, add the sugar liquid, and then continue to cook until cooked.
Dosage: Take in the morning and evening.
Effects: Replenish Qi and nourish blood, improve immune function. It is suitable for those with weak qi and blood and low immune function after breast cancer and other cancer surgeries.
In conclusion, the advantages of Chinese medicine in the peri-chemotherapy period after breast cancer surgery are that it can reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs, reduce the dose of adjuvant chemotherapy drugs, improve the sensitivity of the body to chemotherapy drugs, better improve clinical symptoms, enhance the immune function of the body, complete chemotherapy on time and in the right amount, improve the quality of life of patients, increase the survival rate, and achieve the effect of reducing toxicity and increasing effectiveness. Chinese medicine has a wide range of indications and unique advantages in the treatment of perioperative, peri-chemotherapy, peri-radiotherapy and consolidation phases of breast cancer.
Prevention and care
1. Maintain a good and optimistic state of mind, avoid bad emotions, exclude bad stimuli and disturbances, and face the changes of the disease correctly. Breast cancer is not terrible, as long as it is treated actively and examined regularly, it can live and work like normal people.
2. Avoid overworking, especially for those who have been stable for more than 2 years after surgery and are prone to relax their vigilance. Often exceed their own ability to take on household or work responsibilities, resulting in the body of the evil in the hair, recurrence of metastasis. Therefore, especially to warn young and middle-aged patients with stable disease more than 2 years after surgery, cherish this stable period, stable period of more than 10 years, the recurrence and metastasis rate is extremely low.
3, life should be regular, food and lodging in order, maintain physical fitness, avoid obesity; appropriate participation in sports activities, especially in the outdoor green environment or the park should be fast walking exercise, gradually increase the amount of activity, but also naturally improve the body’s ability to resist disease.
4, middle-aged patients stop menstruation for six months, 10 months, and now the period, there is no need to panic, indicating that the body is gradually recovered. The age of menstruation should be suppressed, but disrupt the normal physiological, endocrine and metabolic functions of the body, reducing the body’s immunity, which is not desirable.
5.Regular examination. The prevention of recurrence and metastasis after breast cancer surgery is the most important concern of both doctors and patients, so regular checkups must be conducted on the basis of adhering to treatment. If axillary lymph node metastasis is found during surgery or breast-conserving surgery, it should be examined once every 3 months within 1 to 2 years; if there is no axillary lymph node metastasis, it should be examined once every 6 months within 2 years and once every year after 2 years.