Breast Cancer Screening is necessary for your health

Breast Cancer Screening is necessary for your health.   Breast cancer screening is one of the important means to protect women’s health.

Breast cancer is one of the malignant tumors that pose a major threat to women’s health. Statistics show that the incidence and mortality of breast cancer are ranked first and fourth among female malignant tumors in some countries, respectively.

Breast cancer has caused a huge physical and economic burden on patients and their families. Blocking is worse than sparse, and cure is worse than prevention. Breast cancer can actually be prevented. This article will introduce how to screen for breast cancer.

Who are the high-risk groups for breast cancer?

According to the latest “Chinese Women’s Breast Cancer Screening and Early Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines”, risk factors for breast cancer include family history of breast cancer, high levels of endogenous estrogen and so on.

1. High-risk groups related to family history and genetics include the following categories:

• First-degree relatives (ie mothers, sisters, daughters) have a history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer;
• Two or more of the second-degree relatives (ie aunt, aunt, grandmother, maternal grandmother) have a history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer before the age of 50;

At least one first-degree relative (i.e. mother, sister, daughter) carries a known BRCA1/2 gene (the occurrence of breast cancer is closely related to the mutation of these two genes) pathogenic genetic mutation; or oneself carries it Pathogenic genetic mutation of BRCA1/2 gene.

Among the three types of people mentioned above, as long as any one of the conditions is met, they belong to the high-risk group.

2. High-risk groups related to hormones and breast diseases include the following categories:

• Age at menarche≤12 years old;
• Menopausal age ≥55 years old;
• History of breast biopsy or surgery of benign breast disease, or history of pathologically proven breast (lobular or duct) atypical hyperplasia;
• Use “estrogen and progesterone combination” hormone replacement therapy for no less than half a year;
• After 45 years of age, mammography showed that the type of breast parenchyma (or breast density) was uneven and dense or dense.

As long as one of the above five conditions is met, the population is at high risk of breast cancer.

Expert introduction: Li Qun, MD, postdoctoral (Fudan University Cancer Hospital), deputy chief physician of the Department of Oncology, Shanghai Tongji University Dongfang Hospital, member of the Youth Academic Committee of Harvard University Changmu Translational Medicine China Program. From 2016 to 2018, he was sent to the Stanford University School of Medicine for postdoctoral research. Technical features: comprehensive treatment of breast cancer (radio-chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy), clinical research of new drugs for breast cancer, precise diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and genetic testing consultation.

3. Other types, including the following categories:

• No history of breastfeeding or breastfeeding time <4 months;
• No history of live birth (including never giving birth, miscarriage, stillbirth) or age of first live birth ≥ 30 years old;
• Only use “estrogen” hormone replacement therapy for no less than half a year;
• Abortion (including spontaneous abortion and artificial abortion) ≥ 2 times.

As long as any two of the above four conditions are met, the population is at high risk of breast cancer.

*As long as the conditions for high-risk groups are not met, they belong to general risk groups.

What is the difference between the screening methods for high-risk groups and general-risk groups?

There are differences between high-risk groups and general-risk groups in the time to start screening, the frequency of screening, and the way of screening:

• When to start screening: For general-risk groups, it is recommended to start breast cancer screening at the age of 45, and for high-risk groups, it is recommended to start breast cancer screening at the age of 40.
• Frequency of screening: For people at general risk, breast cancer screening is recommended every 1 to 2 years, and for high-risk people, breast cancer screening is recommended once a year.
• Screening method: For people at general risk, breast ultrasound can be selected as the examination method. If the conditions for breast ultrasound are not available, mammography can be used instead; for high-risk groups, only breast ultrasound or X-ray photography can be used It is not enough. Breast ultrasound combined with mammography should be performed. In particular, for those who are detected as BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, it is advisable to use breast ultrasound combined with mammography after the examination, followed by breast MRI.

How do you look at the screening results?

When you get the screening results, you must consult a specialist. Generally speaking, the classification of mammography and breast ultrasound diagnosis results is expressed by BI-RADS (breast imaging report and data system), from BI-RADS 0 To BI-RADS 5, it indicates that the possibility of malignant transformation is higher.

For the results of different stages, the treatment and follow-up measures after the examination are also different. For example, subjects classified as BI-RADS 4 or BI-RADS 5 need to be checked after the examination.

A biopsy is performed for clarification, and follow-up is also carried out through telephone, home visits, and medical record information retrieval from medical institutions to obtain the final diagnosis and outcome information of each screened subject.

In short, breast cancer screening is one of the important means to protect women’s health. Female friends should not evade screening because they are afraid of screening for breast cancer. Breast cancer is not completely incurable. On the contrary, early breast cancer survival The rate is very high. Rather than avoiding medical problems, it is better to develop good living habits, stay away from drinking, smoking, overweight, radiation and other breast cancer risk factors, actively exercise physical exercises, and conduct regular breast cancer screenings.

(source:internet, reference only)

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