How to get early screening for breast cancer?

  Breast cancer screening is the screening of asymptomatic women for early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment through effective, easy, and cost-effective breast screening measures. The ultimate goal is to reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer in the population.  The lifetime probability of breast cancer in women is 10%, and there are about 1.2 million breast cancer patients worldwide each year, and 400,000 people die from this disease each year, and the rate of increase is 2% to 3% each year. It has become the first malignant tumor in women and the second in mortality rate of malignant tumors. The incidence of breast cancer in China has leaped to the first place of female malignant tumors, and the age of incidence is trending younger. According to the screening of 120,000 women in Shandong, Jiangsu, Hebei and Tianjin provinces and cities led by the Second Hospital of Shandong University in 2008, it was found that the average age of breast cancer patients in these areas was 46.8 years old at the time of diagnosis, which is 10-15 years earlier than that in Europe and America. With the improvement of people’s quality of life, early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment of breast cancer are imperative to reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer.  The survival of breast cancer patients is closely related to the pathological stage, the earlier the pathological stage the higher the cure rate, that is, the size of the breast tumor, whether there are axillary lymph node metastases, whether there are bone, liver, lung and brain metastases determine the length of the patient’s survival. In our country, most of the breast cancer is detected by the patient’s palpation of breast lumps, and only 30% of the patients have early stage breast cancer, while 70% of the breast cancer patients are already in the middle and late stage once they are detected, losing the best time for surgery or recurrence and metastasis within a short time after surgery, resulting in short survival and high mortality. In the United States, due to the screening of breast cancer in the 1970s, only 9% of patients are currently in the middle to late stages.  If early, asymptomatic breast cancer can be detected by screening, the cure rate of surgery is increased and there is a chance of breast conservation; patients with clear absence of axillary metastasis by biopsy of anterior lymph nodes can be treated without axillary lymph node clearance, reducing the possibility of upper limb edema; and the chance of metastasis to vital organs due to breast cancer is reduced. This means that more breast cancer patients can have the opportunity to have a better chance of long-term survival because of early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment. Some patients with early-stage breast cancer can have a complete eradication of the tumor with a short hospital stay and less pain, while preserving the breast and maintaining mental and physical integrity and health, thus improving quality of life and also prolonging survival, with only a similar breast-segment surgery.  Several studies have shown that mass cancer screening can detect more early cases, which can lead to a gradual decrease in mortality in the context of increasing prevalence. Screening for breast cancer was introduced in the West beginning in the 1970s, and the mortality rate from breast cancer has been on a gradual decline since the 1990s. In the United States, a woman’s lifetime chance of developing breast cancer is 12.3%, which means that 1 in 8 women may develop breast cancer. In 2009, of the newly diagnosed breast cancer cases in the United States, about 192,370 were invasive breast cancer and 62,280 were in situ cancer, which is a very early stage of breast cancer and can be completely cured by surgery. While the incidence of breast cancer is increasing year by year, the mortality rate is decreasing year by year.  Breast cancer treatment mainly includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine and targeted therapy, among which the cost of radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment is between tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Early stage breast cancer often does not require chemotherapy or only 4-6 cycles of chemotherapy, and can return to work again after treatment. In contrast, patients with advanced stage need multiple and repeated chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which is not only extremely painful but also costly, and many patients will also lose part of their upper limbs due to lymphedema in the upper limbs caused by axillary lymph node dissection and cannot work normally. This shows that early detection and early treatment can not only prolong the survival rate of patients, but also save a lot of money and create more value.  The breast is an important secondary sexual characteristic of women, and is an expression of female beauty. It plays a very important role in maintaining women’s self-confidence and stability of family life. When suffering from breast cancer, the first thing women consider is the impact of their lack of body on themselves and their family. They are worried about the deformation of their body caused by mastectomy, and they are also afraid of the shortened survival period caused by the spread of malignant tumor and the burden of high medical expenses on their family, so the psychological pressure they bear is exceptionally great. If early detection and early treatment can be achieved through screening, not only is it possible to maintain a beautiful appearance, but it will also play an important role in the stability and happiness of the family.