Does a diagnosis of breast cancer mean a terminal illness? What are the misunderstandings about breast cancer?

According to data from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the number of new cancer cases worldwide in 2020 totaled 19.29 million, of which the number of new breast cancer patients reached 2.26 million, ranking first among tumors.

In China, breast cancer is also the most common malignant tumor among women, with approximately 416,000 new cases each year, accounting for 18.4% of the global cases.

What are the misunderstandings about breast cancer?

Myth 1: Breast massage helps eliminate lumps

Many patients who visit hospitals for "breast lumps" feel them when massaging their breasts at home, or discover them during massage therapy at beauty salons. Some people believe that massage can "reduce swelling and relieve blood stasis" and that breast lumps can be eliminated through massage.

In fact, malignant tumors such as breast cancer grow very fast. Massage will not only fail to shrink them, but some improper massage techniques may even promote tumor growth and accelerate local infiltration and lymphatic and blood metastasis of malignant tumors. Therefore, if you find a breast lump and its nature is unknown, please go to a hospital specialist for treatment first.

Myth 2: Folk remedies can treat breast cancer

Once breast cancer is diagnosed, many patients and their families are psychologically shocked and even start looking for folk remedies. Many high-level intellectuals are willing to be deceived. These folk remedies do not have real verification data from patient population samples and cannot be used as scientific, reliable, and recommended methods.

Breast cancer patients need professional breast doctors to develop professional methods. Patients' treatment compliance is also very important. Don't treat one way today and switch to another plan tomorrow. Find a doctor from a regular treatment institution that you trust and use medication according to a standardized treatment plan.

If folk remedies are useful, why are they not chosen as conventional treatments? Failure to treat in time will not only delay treatment, but also lead to rapid progression of the disease, which will eventually endanger life.

Myth 3: Recurrence and metastasis cannot be cured?

Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer. This type of breast cancer cannot grow without estrogen, and endocrine therapy is an important treatment for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. After radical surgery, drugs can be used to inhibit the activity of estrogen in the body, which can effectively inhibit cancer growth. Endocrine therapy can enable these patients to survive for a fairly long time and at the same time, have a better quality of life.

However, some breast cancers may recur and metastasize after treatment. Many patients are very pessimistic and think that treatment is meaningless. In fact, there are still treatment options for patients with recurrent and metastatic breast cancer, such as endocrine therapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and other comprehensive methods. Scientific treatment can still prolong the patient's life and improve the quality of life.

Behind every miracle, there is a person who never gives up

In general, after being diagnosed with breast cancer, please do not easily believe in folk remedies or secret recipes passed down from generation to generation, or be afraid of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. You should listen carefully to the doctor's explanation, understand whether the purpose of treatment is to cure or prolong life, and choose the best treatment plan based on the location and metastasis of your own tumor to maximize the cure rate.

Don't believe in pseudoscience. You should face reality, trust doctors, trust medicine, and adhere to scientific treatment. Early-stage cancer can be cured, and patients with mid- to late-stage cancer can live with the tumor for more than 5 or 10 years.

Only if you don’t give up, there will be hope!

Author: Deputy Chief Physician Member of the Youth Science Popularization Innovation Professional Committee of Hunan Medical Education and Technology Association