How should breast cancer be screened? Chinese women are different!

Pineapple Says

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and breast cancer is the number one cancer among Chinese women.

For breast cancer screening, it is recommended in Europe and the United States to start screening with X-rays over the age of 40, which is relatively cost-effective and indeed effective. But Chinese and American women are a little different, so the screening protocol is also a little different.

I’ll start by asking you an important question, Breast cancer risk is related to what nature of the breast?

It is rumored that it has something to do with size, but in fact it has nothing to do with size and shape, but with density. Why?

There are two important reasons for this. First, there are two types of cells in the breast, one is fat cells and the other is glandular cells, and the ones that actually become cancerous are glandular cells. Therefore, the denser the breast, the higher the gland content, so the more cancerous seeds will be.

Second and more important, density affects the effectiveness of screening. For European and American women’s soft breasts, X-rays can be seen through, if there are early tumors, it is easy to detect. However, for the dense breast tissue of Chinese women, it is often seen as a whole shadow. If there is an early tumor in it, it is very likely to be invisible.

So 30% of Chinese women will miss diagnosis if they rely on X-ray program alone. In China, we need a unique screening method, and this method is also very simple, that is, B-ultrasound. When you go to the hospital for breast screening, under normal circumstances, you will definitely add a B-ultrasound.

Recommendations for screening of high-risk and non-high-risk groups

For high-risk groups, MRI can be considered in addition to X-rays and B-ultrasounds. MRI is a more sensitive and precise screening method, but it is very expensive, so it is not recommended for ordinary people. In addition, I would like to tell everyone that MRI does not have ionizing radiation and will not cause direct cancer risks to the body.

Salute to life!

_________