Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs from the ductal epithelium of the breast and is a common malignancy in women. About one million women worldwide suffer from breast cancer each year. Men can also develop breast cancer, but women are 100 times more likely to develop breast cancer than men.
In many Western countries, breast cancer accounts for the highest incidence of cancer in women. In China, breast cancer accounts for the top two malignant tumors in women. According to relevant information, its incidence rate is 23/100,000 population in women and only 0.49/100,000 population in men. Breast cancer in men accounts for about 1% of all breast cancers. Breast cancer mostly occurs in women between the ages of 40 and 60, or around the time of menopause, especially between the ages of 45 and 49 and 60 and 64.
Breast cancer is most common in the upper quadrant of the breast. Early stage breast cancer may not have any conscious symptoms, but the lump may appear in the upper part of the breast, with hard and tough texture, poorly defined border, no sense of envelope, little mobility when pushed, no obvious pain, nipple retraction, deviation, yellow water or blood flowing from nipple 2-3 cm away, cancerous eczema-like changes, etc.
If breast cancer is diagnosed early and treated appropriately, its prognosis is relatively good, for example, the 10-year survival rate of stage I breast cancer can be as high as 90%.
At present, the main treatment methods are
Surgical treatment
The main treatment for breast cancer is surgical resection. For early, intermediate and late stage breast cancer patients, surgery should be the first choice as long as their physical condition can tolerate surgery. The purpose of surgical treatment is to maximize local control of the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes, reduce local recurrence, and improve the survival rate of patients. The surgical method must be decided according to the site of the tumor, the patient’s age, requirements and the surgeon’s experience, and the results of pathological examination, and there is no one accepted best surgical method.
If the mass is felt to be large before surgery and surgical resection is not certain, neoadjuvant chemotherapy , i.e. preoperative chemotherapy, can be considered first.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the use of chemical drugs to treat the tumor, including preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative chemotherapy. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is most commonly used to eliminate microscopic cancer lesions remaining after surgery, thus prolonging recurrence-free survival, reducing mortality and improving survival rate.
The basic principles of postoperative chemotherapy are early, adequate, effective and combined chemotherapy.
The common toxic reactions of chemotherapy drugs include gastrointestinal reactions and bone marrow suppression. Intense chemotherapy may cause suppression of immune function, especially T-cell function, which may lead to increased susceptibility to certain infections, such as herpes zoster.
Radiation therapy
Treatment of tumors by radiation exposure. In the past, radiation therapy was used as a complementary treatment after surgery or as palliative treatment for advanced, recurrent cases. Since the 1980s, research on reducing the scope of surgery plus radiation treatment for early breast cancer has been carried out, and now it is commonly used in Europe and the United States, becoming one of the main local treatment modalities for early breast cancer.
Endocrine therapy
It is generally believed that the occurrence of breast cancer is related to the action of female hormones in the body, and the treatment is achieved by regulating the level of female hormones in the body. The advantages of endocrine therapy are convenience, safety, less side effects and definite efficacy. The disadvantages are slow onset of action, long medication cycle, and only suitable for patients with positive estrogen and progesterone receptors.
Targeted therapy
As the name implies, it is selective anti-tumor therapy. It targets certain targets on tumor cells to achieve the purpose of killing them. The advantages are high selectivity, low side effects and precise efficacy, which is the development direction of tumor treatment. The disadvantage is that it is expensive and difficult to be popularized in a large area in the short term.