Breast Medicine

The Department of Breast Diseases of Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was established at the beginning of the 21st century. It is the unit of the chairperson of the Breast Diseases Professional Committee of the Shanghai Association of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, a Shanghai “Women’s Civilization Post” and “March 8th Red-Flag Collective,” and a renowned specialty in Pudong New Area. It undertakes 2 discipline-development projects, leads 40 scientific research projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and at the provincial and ministerial levels, has published more than 100 papers in core journals and SCI papers, participated in formulating multiple expert consensuses, industry guidelines, and industry and national standards, served as chief editor of 2 monographs, deputy chief editor of 2 planned textbooks, and obtained 4 authorized patents. The department has hosted the National Forum on Breast Diseases Integrating Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine and Continuing Education Course for 10 consecutive years.

The department focuses on the integrated diagnosis and treatment of breast diseases using traditional Chinese and Western medicine as its specialty priority. The department has several areas of clinical strength, including inflammatory breast diseases, breast cancer, and mammary hyperplasia, and clinically adheres to giving equal importance to Chinese and Western medicine and combining internal and external treatments.

For patients with non-lactational mastitis, the department has developed the “Comprehensive Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Plan of Traditional Chinese Medicine.” For internal treatment, it uses “Jiangru Formula” and “Qinghua Tanshi Formula” (both patented); for external treatment, it employs traditional Chinese medicine characteristic therapies such as the encircling method, application and rubbing of traditional Chinese medicine, adhesive-patch therapy, targeted transdermal administration of traditional Chinese medicine, the cotton-padding method, and traditional Chinese medicine necrotic-tissue dissolution and debridement, and was the first in China to adopt innovative surgical methods such as shield tunneling incision and staged surgery. The distinctive comprehensive traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment plan has the advantages of a short healing time, a low recurrence rate, and preservation of breast contour, producing satisfactory results and achieving a perfect integration of traditional Chinese medicine and modern innovative traditional Chinese medicine techniques. This comprehensive traditional Chinese medicine treatment plan has benefited more than 5000 patients with non-lactational mastitis and received the second prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Award for Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.

The department has established a comprehensive integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine system for the prevention and treatment of breast diseases, with distinctive features and significant advantages. For different lesions, breast ultrasonography and precise localization biopsy under stereotactic X-ray guidance are selected to achieve “early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment”; “minimally effective” individualized surgical methods are performed, including breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer, modified radical mastectomy, and sentinel lymph node biopsy, thereby reducing surgical trauma and improving patients’ quality of life; breast plastic and cosmetic techniques such as cosmetic breast incisions, glandular tissue displacement, and nipple-areola reconstruction are performed to pursue a good breast appearance while ensuring the therapeutic effect of surgery; a multi-faceted, full-course management system before/after surgery is established to promote the concept of standardized adjuvant treatment for breast cancer under multidisciplinary collaboration and improve treatment efficacy; traditional Chinese medicine runs throughout the entire management process, including the perioperative period of breast cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy, reducing toxic and side effects, achieving rapid recovery, reducing recurrence and metastasis, and improving long-term survival rates.

For patients with lactational mastitis, “promoting unobstructed flow as the basis for smooth recovery” is adopted in the early stage. For internal treatment, the department innovatively proposed the treatment principle of “supplementing qi and blood, clearing heat, and promoting milk flow,” using “Qingbu Formula” (patented) together with the “lifting, pushing, and promoting milk flow technique,” providing safe and effective diagnosis and treatment for breastfeeding, effectively blocking disease progression to the abscess stage, reducing the occurrence of complications, and increasing patients’ confidence in exclusive breastfeeding.

The Department of Breast Diseases is a doctoral postgraduate training site for the breast specialty of Traditional Chinese Surgery and has trained more than 50 doctoral and master’s postgraduate students. It undertakes Chinese-language and fully English-taught courses in Traditional Chinese Surgery at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, leads multiple teaching research projects of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and others, and the team has received multiple honorary titles, including “Demonstration Course Taught in English for Foreign Students at Shanghai Universities,” “Excellent Teaching Team of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,” and “Teaching Achievement Award of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.”