Cancer | Correctly assess the prognostic effect of breast cancer

With the acceleration of the pace of modern life, more and more diseases have occurred. For women, breast cancer is a disease with greater impact and harm. The treatment of breast cancer is often surgical treatment plus radiotherapy and chemotherapy. So what is the prognostic effect of breast cancer? What factors will affect the prognosis of breast cancer? Breast cancer can be invasive and fatal, and there are also relatively slow progressing and recurrence and metastasis in the late stage.

Stages of breast cancer

The involvement of axillary lymph nodes and the size of the primary tumor are important factors affecting the survival of breast cancer patients.

1. Lymph nodes

The presence or absence of lymph node metastasis is one of the important factors to judge the prognosis of tumor patients. Studies have shown that before receiving current surgical adjuvant treatment, the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer patients after a radical mastectomy is 65%, and the 10-year survival rate is 45%. Among them, the 5-year survival rate of patients without axillary lymph node metastasis is about 80%, and the 10-year survival rate is 65%. The 5-year survival rate of patients with axillary lymph node metastasis is less than 50%, and the 10-year survival rate is 25%. The 5-year survival rate of patients with ≥4 axillary lymph node metastasis is 30%, and the 10-year survival rate is less than 15%. From the perspective of breast cancer treatment stages, the 5-year survival rate is 87% for stage I, 75% for stage II, 45% for stage III, and 13% for stage IV. Therefore, the treatment of breast cancer has made great progress.

2. The size of the primary tumor

Regardless of whether the lymph nodes have metastasized, the size of the tumor is closely related to the prognosis of breast cancer patients. Patients with larger tumors have a higher recurrence rate and risk of death. Because patients with larger tumors easily invade surrounding tissues, lymphatic metastasis occurs. The prognosis of breast cancer patients whose tumors invade the skin or tissues is poor. The prognosis of inflammatory breast cancer is poor, the average survival time is less than 2 years, and the 5-year survival rate is less than 10%. New adjuvant chemotherapy can improve the treatment effect of patients.

3.Her-2/neu amplification

The amplification of the Her-2/neu gene and the overexpression of its product transmembrane receptor lead to early metastasis and deterioration of breast cancer patients, which affects the quality of life of patients. However, the positive expression of Her-2 increases its sensitivity to the targeted drug, and its treatment outcome is better than other patients.

Estrogen and progesterone receptors

Although the disease stage is more important in determining cancer recurrence, estrogen, and progesterone receptors still play a role in the prognosis of breast cancer patients. The recurrence rate of estrogen and progesterone-negative patients in the early years after diagnosis is significantly higher than that of hormone-receptor-positive patients. Studies in recent years have found that hormone receptor-positive and hormone-negative patients have similar recurrence and mortality, but the hormone receptor-negative patients appear earlier.

Other factors

Other factors can also interfere with the prognosis of breast cancer, but the specific situation needs further research.

Studies have found that early detection of breast cancer and treatment of breast cancer patients will have a good prognosis. The prognostic effect of breast cancer is related to the stage of breast cancer, the lymph nodes, the size of the primary tumor, the receptors of estrogen and progesterone, and some other factors. In short, early detection and intervention of breast cancer will greatly increase the prognosis of breast cancer patients.