On October 30th, the "Empower HER2, Excellent New Life" - Advanced Breast Cancer Patient Care Action Kick-off Meeting was held in Nanjing, sponsored by CSCO Special Committee for Patient Education and Bethune Charity Foundation, and co-organized by AstraZeneca, The First Third Party and Mijian Patient Platform. During the kick-off meeting, experts shared the current situation of advanced breast cancer and the new progress of cutting-edge breakthrough therapy, and officially launched the "Empower HER2, Excellent New Life" patient care project, calling on all sectors of society to pay attention to advanced breast cancer patients and help them increase anti-cancer confidence, prolong survival time and improve the quality of life.
Professor Yin Yongmei
HER-2-positive breast cancer is a "black butterfly on a pink ribbon"
In 2020, there are 2.26 million new cases of breast cancer in the world, surpassing lung cancer for the first time and becoming the world's largest cancer, and there are 400,000 new breast cancer patients in China every year, of which HER-2 positive breast cancer is a more dangerous subtype in various classifications.
HER-2, also known as human epidermal growth factor receptor-2, is an important predictor of breast cancer. In HER2-positive breast cancer, there will be many HER-2 proteins on the surface of these cancer cells, stimulating the crazy growth of cancer cells, increasing aggressiveness, recurrence and metastasis relatively quickly, bringing great threats to life, once known as "black butterflies on the pink ribbon". The addition of a positive HER2 in the late stage means that the situation facing the patient is more urgent.
Professor Yin Yongmei of Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital, the chairman of the conference, also pointed out that on the basis of ensuring the quality of life, how to control tumors, reduce symptoms and prolong survival is a concern for advanced patients, and it is also the direction of breast cancer doctors. The "Empower HER2, Excellent New Life" care project will bring wonderful and colorful popular science content for breast cancer patients.
Professor Liu Jian
Late stage is not too late, and scientific treatment can greatly prolong survival
Professor Yin Yongmei said that there are about 420,000 new cases of breast cancer patients in China every year, and advanced breast cancer patients are also a large part of the population. Despite formal treatment, 20%-30% of breast cancer patients still develop relapse and metastasis, and now this proportion is getting lower and lower, and about 5%-10% of patients are advanced. At the current level of medical technology, the late stage is not too late, and it is still possible for patients to greatly extend the survival time through the use of new drugs, and the 5-year survival will reach about 30%. But at the same time, they are very much faced with problems in all aspects and need to be paid attention to by society in an all-round way.
Professor Liu Jian of Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital said that advanced breast cancer is relatively under greater pressure and challenges, and new drugs are undoubtedly the hope for the survival of such a population. Taking the population of PATIENTS with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer as an example, large molecule antibodies can now use antibodies to specifically target the transport of drug molecules to the tumor site to play a role, which is a "magic bullet" that integrates targeted drugs and powerful chemotherapy drugs. The use of these drugs is helping advanced patients to prolong survival and improve the quality of life.
From the available statistics, HER-2-positive breast cancer, which was previously considered the most difficult to cure, can now also pass the 5-year survival mark. For patients with bone metastases, scientific treatment can also achieve a breakthrough without disease progression for three years. Advanced breast cancer treatment, we are making long-term progress.
Regular screening for early detection of cancer signs
Experts remind that the pathogenesis of breast cancer is not very clear at present, but there are some risk factors that will lead to the onset of breast cancer, early menstruation, late menopause, and long estrogen exposure, which will improve the incidence of breast cancer. Unmarried childbearing and no breastfeeding are also at high risk of union. The pace of life in modern society is relatively fast, the work pressure is relatively large, and continuous anxiety may also cause abnormal immune function and decreased resistance, which is also a risk factor. Women with a family history should be more careful, pay attention to early screening, and increase the frequency of screening as needed.
The early symptoms of breast cancer are mainly breast lumps, nipple discharge, nipple inverted, etc., once these symptoms are available, they should seek medical attention in time. The main means of examination are molybdenum target, color ultrasound, it is best to combine molybdenum target and B ultrasound, which is relatively easier to diagnose the diagnosis. Experts recommend that women aged 30 to 40 years old undergo an ultrasound examination once a year, such as finding suspicious lesions and then undergo magnetic resonance or mammography for investigation; women over 40 years old, it is recommended to do a molybdenum target examination once a year.
Yangzi Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Yang Yan
Proofread by Faye Wong
Source: Purple Cow News