School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
The Comprehensive Breast Health Center (CBHC) at Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University was founded in January 2009. CBHC features a multidisciplinary team of breast surgery, radiation and medical oncology, pathology, and oncological imaging, nuclear medicine, and plastic surgery. CBHC, based at Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of breast diseases, is a research-oriented clinical and basic-science centre that provides a focus for breast health related teaching and research within the School of Medicine. Professor Dr. Kunwei Shen is currently serving as Executive Director of CBHC, and Chief Physician Dr. Yafen Li, Professor Dr. Dengbin Wang and Dr. Cheng Xu are appointed as Deputy Directors.
CBHC, located at the 22nd floor of No.1 Building of Ruijin Hospital, is a 68-beds facility with adult inpatient services and several partial hospitalization programs including Division of Breast Surgery, Division of Radiation Oncology and Medical Oncology, and ICU. CBHC offers a full range of comprehensive outpatient services like VIP Clinic, Specialist Referral Clinic, Specialist Clinic, Breast Specialty Clinic, General Outpatient Clinic, Radiation and Medical Oncology Clinic, The Breast Health Multidisciplinary Consultation Center and The Chemotherapy Infusion Center (CIC) CBHC provides a comprehensive one-stop service to people with breast abnormalities with state-of-the art diagnostic procedures and equipment including mammography, ultrasound, stereotactic core needle biopsy and Breast MRI, which is the first ever installed in China. Comprehensive diagnostic equipment is available, including Breast MRI, ultrasound, digital mammography, ductography, stereotactic core needle biopsy and Mammotome Breast Biopsy System, to ensure CBHC to be accurate in the diagnosis of breast cancer and benign abnormalities. For patients with negative physical examination results, microcalcification on mammography or nipple discharge, these diagnostic procedures performed will be most effective for early detection of breast cancer, and thus improve the chances that breast cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage and treated successfully.
Based on the concept of breast cancer as a systemic disease, integrative therapy is a mainstay for the treatment of the disease. It is composed of surgery and radiation therapy as local therapies and drug therapies (chemotherapy, hormone therapy and target therapy) as a systemic therapy. CBHC offers individualized surgery procedures and utilizes a variety or resources based on the patient’s specific needs. Options for this include radical mastectomy, modified radical mastectomy, breast-conserving surgery, nipple-areola-sparing mastectomy as well as sentinel lymph node biopsy. In addition, CBHC performs the breast construction surgery after radical mastectomy which can reduce the psychological trauma of treatment and help them quickly recovery from the disease to improve their quality of life. CBHC also takes the advantages of multidisciplinary teamwork in Ruijin Hospital to consult patient with a comprehensive treatment strategy individually, which can improve the outcome and quality of life for breast cancer patients.
Neoadjuvant therapy plays an important role in integrative multimodality therapy of locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). CBHC has focused on the best practice of neoadjuvant therapy in combination with surgery and radiotherapy and has been active in clinical and translational research in breast cancer. It is possible to identify those advanced cancer patients at the outset who are likely to respond to adjuvant treatment and to perform surgery procedure option, as well as to improve the clinical outcome in breast cancer patients with breast conservation surgery.
To date, World Health Organization (WHO) has classified advanced breast cancer (ABC) into the category of chronic disease, which indicates that the aims of ABC treatment are to improve quality of life and to prolong survival. With the development of new drugs and effective treatments, the outcome of ABC patients has improved in recent years, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and target therapy. CBHC offers outpatient and in-patient Radiation and Medical Oncology services and is dedicated to integrative therapy approach to reduce the toxicity, enhance the efficacy, alleviate the symptoms of disease, and improve the quality of life and survival.
CBHC, based at Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, is a fully accredited clinical trial institution by China State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Currently, CBHC has sponsored several multicenter clinical trials in neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer in China and has actively participated in several international and domestic clinical trials to provide evidence for clinical application of novel potent medications for breast cancer.
The nursing staff at the CBHC has expertise, passion, and experiences in breast health care. The nurses work with the physicians to provide education, post-operative care, rehabilitation, coordination of outside resources and emotional support for the Center’s patients. The Center offers an unprecedented array of comprehensive services to meet the varied needs of women with these diseases, as well as women who are concerned about their risk.