Breast cancer

For a lay person:

Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the breast tissue, most often in the milk ducts or lobules. It is the most common cancer in women and can also occur in men, and risk rises with age and some inherited genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. It is often found as a breast lump or on screening mammograms.

For a trained medical person:

Most breast cancers are invasive ductal or lobular carcinomas, classified by hormone receptor and HER2 status, which guide therapy. Diagnosis is by triple assessment: clinical examination, imaging (mammography, ultrasound) and core biopsy, with staging as indicated. Treatment combines surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy and HER2-targeted therapy according to stage and subtype.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook gives Chinese herbal formulas for this condition without a full pattern differentiation. Treatment still follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: This needs specialist oncology care; Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most. See a doctor promptly for any new breast lump or change, and tell your team about all herbs, since some have oestrogen-like effects or can interact with tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors or chemotherapy.