Prof. Jeong Eon Lee: breast cancer treatment remains a social issue in Asian region

Hosted by China Anti-Cancer Association Breast Cancer Society, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, and Shanghai Anticancer Association, the 12^th Shanghai International Breast Cancer Symposium was successfully held in Shanghai during Oct. 19 to Oct. 21, 2017. As the most diversified annual event rich in content, this symposium almost covers all progresses in basic researches, clinical treatments, and prevention as well as reconstruction related to breast cancer. Altogether, more than 3,000 experts from home and abroad attended the grand meeting this year.

Prof. Jeong Eon Lee, a surgeon from the Department of Surgery, Breast Cancer Center of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, has delivered a wonderful speech (Figure 1) on “when to avoid chemotherapy for breast cancer patient at Luminal-A stage”, predominantly giving his analysis from such perspective as gene expression, subtype prognosis, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and others to give his clinical decisions. On the sidelines of conference, the editor of Annals of Breast Surgery is very honored to interview Prof. Lee and invites him to give some sharing on breast cancer research (Figure 2).

Figure 1 Speech delivery of Prof. Lee.

Figure 2 Photo with Prof. Lee.

As for how to formulate a good individualized treatment plan for breast cancer patients at Luminal-A stage, Prof. Lee pointed out though it is rather hard to give a precise bound between Luminal-A and Luminal-B stage solely based on the immunohistochemistry examinations, a good individualized treatment plan must take comprehensive considerations of patients’ need and clinical diagnosis, sometimes with the help of molecular assays especially for vague tumors. Therefore, enough communication with patients remains a very significant position.

Furthermore, Prof. Lee said that women tend to uphold late marriage and late childbirth in Asian region, especially in China, Japan and South Korea. This regional phenomenon accordingly brings about some regional characteristics of patients with breast cancer: first, they tend to suffer the breast cancer at a rather young age than patients of western countries; second, premenopausal patients rise greatly in Asian region where nulliparous women occupy a rather large proportion. According to statistics collected by Prof. Lee, three quarters of breast cancer patients from America are postmenopausal while half of the patents are premenopausal in Korea, Singapore and China and so on.

At last, Prof. Lee shared with us his prospect towards the breast cancer treatment in the coming decade. Based on his study experience in America, Prof. Lee said that the medical environment varies from America and Asian region. In most circumstances, American doctors can spend enough time on a single patient while Asian doctors usually have a heavier workload with little time distributed on each single patient, so artificial intelligence may be anticipated to gain better development to greatly relieve doctor’s workload. Moreover, governmental health care systems in Asian region still need to be optimized so that increasing patients can enjoy better health care with economic burdens relieved. With regard to breast cancer prevention, Prof. Lee gave his practical suggestions in a humorous way, “you meet somebody and marry him!” (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Prof. Jeong Eon Lee: breast cancer treatment remains a social issue in Asian region (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1847

Interview questions

• In your opinion, how to do the individualized treatment well for breast cancer patients at Luminal-A stage?
• Based on your rich clinical experience, what kind of women that tend to suffer the breast cancer in Asian region?
• What is the current status of patients’ reconstruction after breast cancer?
• Could you share with us some suggestions to effectively prevent the breast cancer?
• Could you share with us your prospect towards the treatment of breast cancer in the coming years?

Experts introduction

Prof. Jeong Eon Lee, MD (Department of Surgery, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Comprehensive Cancer Center, Samsung Medical Center, Korea).

At present, Prof. Lee is an expert in such areas as breast cancer, benign breast diseases, comprehensive research of cell and molecular biology in breast cancer. After finishing his internship from Seoul National University Hospital, Prof. Lee then spent 4 years working as a resident physician in Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital during which he developed solid professional competence and surgical skills. He decided to gain additional experience and expertise in the field of breast cancer, he became a fellow in breast cancer area of Seoul National University Hospital under the guidance of his mentor Prof. Dong-Young Noh. He has been working for Samsung Medical Center since March 2006. In October of 2016, Prof. Lee has become the fellow in American College of Surgeons. In January of 2017, Prof. Lee has joined the Korean Association for Clinical Oncology and become a member of it. In April, he has become the Chair of Academic committee in Korean Breast Cancer Society.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Breast Surgery. This article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/abs.2017.11.01). LY reports that she is a full-time employee of AME Publishing Company (publisher of the journal).

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Young L. Prof. Jeong Eon Lee: breast cancer treatment remains a social issue in Asian region. Asvide 2017;4:527. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1847

(Interview editor: Luna Young, ABS, abs@amegroups.com)