Mr. Zhu’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer because of 'breast lumps'. After surgery, the tumor was completely removed. After the operation, the doctor asked Mr. Zhu to send the cut tumor to the pathology department for examination. Mr. Zhu began to worry again: After the tumor was clearly cut and it was diagnosed as cancer, why was it still pathological? Is his wife's condition worsening?
Lin Lizhu, director of the Cancer Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that in clinical practice, many cancer patients and their families have such confusion, because they do not understand the role and significance of pathological examination. Although new diagnostic techniques have been introduced Clinically, but only the results of pathological examination are the 'gold standard' for the diagnosis of tumors. It can more reliably determine the benign, malignant, and differentiation of tumors. It can even understand whether there are gene mutations. The significance of pathological diagnosis lies in the fact that it is clear that patients can Whether the chemotherapy is sensitive or not, help determine the postoperative further treatment plan. It can be said that the pathological examination is to judge the benign and malignant tumors, and the 'judge' for their 'sentencing'.
The special features of breast cancer are its many pathological types. The World Health Organization divides them into 21 categories and 40 species. The types are different, treatment will be very different, and the prognosis is not the same. For Mrs. Zhu mentioned above, The purpose of pathological examination is also to examine pathological morphological changes of surgical tumor specimens to determine the degree of breast cancer development, tissue origin, changes in characteristics, differentiation, immunohistochemistry, etc. If confirmed by pathological examination, it is confirmed to have breast cancer. It is a hormone-dependent tumor that can achieve good results through endocrine therapy; if it is a non-hormone-dependent tumor, the effect of endocrine therapy is not ideal, and other treatment options are needed.
