Is chemotherapy or herbal medicine better for breast cancer after surgery?

Post-operative chemotherapy for breast cancer is more effective compared to taking traditional Chinese medicine, and the need for chemotherapy is determined by assessing the risk of recurrence. If there are uncomfortable symptoms such as fatigue, Chinese medicine can be taken to regulate the symptoms. Postoperative chemotherapy for breast cancer can reduce the probability of postoperative recurrence and metastasis and improve the therapeutic effect. Especially for the high-risk group with relatively large lesions and lymph node metastasis, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is necessary. For patients with earlier staging and better prognosis, the probability of recurrence and metastasis is very low, and chemotherapy can not be beneficial, but will increase the risk of adverse reactions to chemotherapy to the patient, so this kind of patients do not need chemotherapy. As a means of adjuvant therapy, there is insufficient clinical evidence that traditional Chinese medicine can improve the prognosis of breast cancer after surgery, and there is no relevant study to confirm that the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine is equal to or better than chemotherapy. However, after surgery or chemotherapy, it is easy to hurt the body’s vital energy, resulting in symptoms such as fatigue, poor appetite, insomnia and other discomforts, so it is possible to take medicines that can strengthen the spleen, benefit vital energy and nourish the vital energy and blood, such as Atractylodes macrocephala, Radix Angelicae Sinensis, Codonopsis Pilosulae, and so on, for the purpose of adjusting. If chemotherapy or traditional Chinese medicine is needed, please go to the hospital and choose the appropriate treatment plan under the doctor’s guidance.