Routine review after breast cancer surgery

  The NCCN guidelines recommend that after surgery for breast cancer patients: 1. follow-up and physical examination of the disease every 4-6 months for 5 years and every 12 months thereafter; 2. mammography every 12 months (every 6-12 months after radiotherapy for those who received breast-conserving surgery); 3. gynecologic examination every 12 months for those who received tamoxifen if the uterus is still preserved; 4. Those treated with aromatase inhibitors should be monitored for bone mineral density at baseline status and periodically thereafter.  With standard surgery, preoperative/postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy, and targeted therapy for breast cancer patients, some patients can achieve complete cure, especially early stage patients have a higher cure rate, but there are still some patients who develop recurrent metastasis after a period of disease-free survival after standard treatment. The common sites of recurrent metastasis in breast cancer patients are lymph nodes (ipsilateral upper and lower clavicular region, contralateral axilla and upper and lower clavicular region), chest wall, lung and pleura, liver, bone and brain, all of which are the sites that need attention in the follow-up of the disease.  It should be emphasized that when bone pain (common back pain) occurs after breast cancer surgery, the possibility of bone metastasis must be considered.  Recurrent metastasis is often asymptomatic at first, so only regular review can detect it early and start treatment as early as possible to control the disease effectively. There are many effective treatments for breast cancer, and the 5-year survival rate and 10-year survival rate can be significantly increased with reasonable and orderly treatment. Therefore, do not give up treatment easily after recurrence and metastasis, or trust the judgment of some non-specialist physicians, going to a specialist hospital to receive standard treatment is the key to improve the quality of survival and prolong the survival period.