Breast Cancer Medical Center

The Shanghai Breast Cancer Medical Center & Breast Cancer Research Institute of Fudan University wasestablished on September 6, 2002. Dr Shen, Zhen-Zhou and Dr Shao, Zhi-Min, are the acting chief executive officers.

Breast cancer has ranked first among all female carcinomas in Shanghai since early 1990s. And the incidence of breast cancer in Shanghai in 2000 is as high as 530,000 per 100,000 women. The Cancer Hospital of Fudan University (former Shanghai Cancer Hospital) is one of the earliest organizations in China that initiated the research and treatment of breast cancer. Since 1952, more than 7,000 patients with breast cancer have turned to the center for cancer care, with the 10-year survival rates after surgery reaching 88% and 78% for StageⅠand Ⅱdisease respectively, which has reached the international advanced level. The newly founded center has expanded its scale to a multidisciplinary center, and to date it contains 4 wards with 120 beds, 1 diagnostic center and 1 central laboratory.

Surgery now still plays the dominant role in breast cancer treatment. The Department of Surgery in Breast Cancer is predominantly adopted operation, combined with chemotherapy, endocrinal therapy, biological treatment and so on, the founders of which are Dr. Li, Yue-Yun. Now the Department of surgery is focusing on the research as well as application of breast conserving surgery and sentinel lymph node biopsy. It also performs the reconstruction of breast after radical mastectomy, which is another choice provided for patients with early stage breast cancer. For patients with local advanced breast cancer, it is recommended to apply multidisciplinary approach centralized with neoadjuvant therapy.

To date the main treatment toward breast cancer is surgery based, combined with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, endocrinal therapy, biological therapy as well as other innovative techniques. As a component of Shanghai clinical medicine centers, the Department of Radiation Therapy in FUSCC has updated radiation technology and equipment, featuring largely in breast conserving therapy and three-dimensional photon treatment. Now there is 1 ward exclusively for the radiotherapy of breast cancer.

Systemic therapy is becoming increasing common in breast cancer treatment. Therefore the Department of Surgery and the Department of Medical Oncology in the Center cooperate to adopt personalized systematic treatment for breast cancer patients, which includes routine treatment as well as the use of a variety of new cytotoxic drugs, preoperative chemotherapy and salvage therapy. The Center is currently one of the international clinical research centers for newly developed anti-cancer drugs.

The prominence of the Center is reflected in the early diagnosis technology of breast cancer, especially the application of duct endoscopy for patients with nipple discharge. In addition, it also performs breast X-ray screening and core biopsy for non-palpable lesions. Consequently the screening rate of breast cancer has increased gradually. The Diagnostic Center was established at the beginning of year 2004, which puts a lot of efforts on the imagining and micro-invasive diagnosis of breast disease and focuses on the screening among high-risk women.

The Center continues to combine the research work with clinical practice. According to the basic research field, since 1980s Shanghai Cancer Hospital has made outstanding achievements in the angiogenesis induced by breast lesion, pre-carcinoma breast disease, prognostic factors, animal model of inflammatory breast cancer, the retinoids, Gnenestin, and breast cancer prevention mechanisms, etc. The central laboratory in the Center provides equipment and technical support for basic research in breast cancer. It also assigns employees exclusively for archiving nearly 4000 complete clinical pathological files of breast cancer patients, sets up tissue bank and follow-up records for each patient, so as to provide valuable data for translational research.

The founding of Shanghai Breast cancer Medical Center & Breast Cancer Research Institute of Fudan University symbolizes that the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in Shanghai, and even around China, is developing towards standardization and internationalization. We believe that, with the Center's doctors and researchers' continual effort, new accomplishments will be made an