China's Top Departments: Breast Surgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital (Guangzhou)

For readers in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and worldwide: if you or a loved one has early-stage breast cancer and hopes to preserve the breast, needs reconstruction after mastectomy, is facing triple-negative breast cancer or recurrent/metastatic disease, or carries a hereditary breast-cancer risk, the Department of Breast Surgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou is one of the most historically significant and academically accomplished breast centers in China.

About the Hospital

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (also known as the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, or "Zhongshan No. 2 Hospital") is a large comprehensive tertiary Grade-A hospital integrating clinical care, education, research and preventive health, directly administered by the National Health Commission. Founded in 1835 as the "Ophthalmic Hospital" at the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou, it is the first Western-medicine hospital in China and the birthplace of Western medicine and Western medical education in the country, with nearly 190 years of history. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionary pioneer, studied medicine and carried out revolutionary activities here under the name "Yixian." The hospital is headed by Prof. Song Erwei, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

• Rankings: Rated Grade A+ in the Fudan University 2023 China Hospital Rankings (General Strength) — one of only four A+ hospitals in Guangzhou and one of eleven hospitals in Guangdong listed among the national top 100
• Disciplines: 7 national key disciplines, 17 national key clinical specialty programs and 26 Guangdong provincial key clinical specialty programs; qualified for heart, lung, liver and kidney transplantation
• Research: Entered the global top 100 research hospitals in 2020; ranked in the national top 10 of the Nature Index for four consecutive years
• Scale: More than 3,000 authorized beds and over 5,700 staff, with annual patient visits exceeding 3.88 million and more than 150,000 surgeries each year
• Campuses: North Campus (main) at No. 107 Yanjiang West Road, Yuexiu District; South Campus at No. 33 Yingfeng Road, Haizhu District; Huadu Campus at No. 11 Jinghu Avenue, Huadu District; and Shenshan Campus (Shenshan Central Hospital) in Shanwei, eastern Guangdong

Guangzhou is the transport hub of South China, easily reached via Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail linking to Hong Kong West Kowloon. The North Campus sits on the Pearl River in central Guangzhou, near Yide Road Station on Metro Line 6 — convenient for patients from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas.

About the Department

The Department of Breast Surgery operates in an integrated manner with the Breast Tumor Center and Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital, and is one of the earliest breast specialty departments in China to perform breast-conserving surgery and axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy. Prof. Song Erwei, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the discipline leader; Prof. Liu Qiang serves as Executive Vice President of Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital and concurrently Director of Breast Surgery; and Prof. Su Fengxi is the Chief Expert of Guangdong Province for the "China One-Million Women Screening Project."

The department's history reflects the growth of breast specialty care in China from the ground up:

• 1990 — Prof. Su Fengxi established a dedicated breast clinic
• 1998 — A dedicated breast ward was set up (initially only 4 beds)
• 1999 — Prof. Song Erwei's team introduced the Fisher breast-conserving technique to China and performed the country's first breast-conserving surgery
• 2007 — Breast specialty care became an independent administrative department
• 2010 — The Breast Tumor Medical Department was established (with Prof. Su Fengxi as its first director)
• 2016 — It relocated to the Yixian Building on the South Campus, growing into a 112-bed Breast Tumor Medical Department

Embodying the philosophy of "organ-based subspecialization," the Breast Tumor Medical Department is one of the earliest integrated breast centers in China, combining breast tumor prevention, diagnosis, surgical and medical treatment, and research.

Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital was founded in 2020 and is the first public specialty hospital dedicated to breast diseases in China. Building on the Breast Tumor Center, it integrates multiple clinical disciplines — including oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, rehabilitation, gynaecology/reproductive medicine and psychiatry — into a single platform for breast tumor prevention, diagnosis, specialty treatment and research, offering comprehensive, full-cycle, one-stop integrated care.

The department also includes a Breast Diagnostic Specialty (the Diagnostic Department of the Breast Tumor Center), led by Prof. Gong Chang. It is among the first formally established diagnostic specialties in China dedicated to breast imaging diagnosis, pathological biopsy procedures and gene-sequencing analysis, and conducts clinical research focused on breast cancer screening and early precision diagnosis and treatment.

Academic Standing and Recognition

• One of the earliest breast specialty departments in China to perform breast-conserving surgery and axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy, with a long-standing national leadership position in breast conservation
• Its host institution, Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital, is the first public specialty hospital dedicated to breast diseases in China (founded 2020), aiming for international standards
• The hospital is rated Grade A+ in the Fudan 2023 China Hospital Rankings, with 7 national key disciplines and 17 national key clinical specialty programs
• The Breast Diagnostic Specialty leads research projects including a National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology (as lead group unit), 6 National Natural Science Foundation projects and 7 provincial/ministerial grants. It has published more than 50 SCI papers in surgery, oncology and imaging journals (including Cancer Cell and Nature Communications), holds 1 patent with 10 more applied for and 1 software copyright, and has contributed to books such as Breast-Conserving Treatment of Breast Cancer (People's Medical Publishing House) and Adv Exp Med Biol. (Springer)
• In the 2023 Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Awards, the breast field won two second prizes: Chief Physician Nie Yan's team received the Natural Science Award (Second Prize) for work on malignant progression and targeted therapy of breast phyllodes tumors, and Chief Physician Liu Jieqiong's team received the Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize) for research on immune microenvironment regulation and precision treatment strategies in triple-negative breast cancer
• Fundamental research credentials: the team identified tumor-associated macrophages and the key CCL18 signaling pathway in breast cancer development and progression; as early as 2003 it applied small interfering RNA for targeted therapy in whole-animal disease models — a result selected by Science as one of the world's top ten scientific breakthroughs of the year. Findings have been published in leading journals such as Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Cell, Cancer Cell, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology and Science Translational Medicine
• Academician Song Erwei proposed the "tumor ecosystem theory", opening new directions in cancer immunotherapy, and received the 2015 State Natural Science Award (Second Prize) as first contributor

Core Technologies and Signature Treatments

1. Radical breast-conserving surgery — In 1999 the team introduced the Fisher breast-conserving technique to China and performed the country's first breast-conserving operation. The breast conservation rate for early-stage breast cancer has consistently exceeded 50% (51.7% in 2019), with a post-operative annual recurrence rate below 1% — a nationally leading level. Patients treated with breast conservation by discipline leader Academician Song Erwei achieved a 10-year cancer-specific survival rate of 91%, matching leading breast centers in Europe and the United States
2. Breast reconstruction and oncoplastic surgery — For patients who are not candidates for breast conservation, the department offers a full range of advanced techniques including implants, free-flap reconstruction and fat grafting; plastic techniques are also applied to breast-conserving surgery to broaden the indications, balancing oncological safety with appearance
3. Axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy (axillary preservation) — Among the earliest in China, with an axillary preservation rate of 42%, reducing arm lymphedema and improving quality of life
4. Minimally invasive breast diagnosis and biopsy — Among the first in China to use ultrasound-guided vacuum-assisted core biopsy for breast mass biopsy and minimally invasive removal of benign masses, with more than 20,000 cumulative cases. Equipment includes digital color ultrasound, automated breast volume scanner (ABVS), digital breast tomosynthesis, breast MRI, ductoscopy, three-dimensional stereotactic biopsy and metallic clip localization
5. Molecular subtyping and individualized comprehensive treatment — Full-course management based on molecular subtype, including neoadjuvant therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy
6. Precision treatment of triple-negative breast cancer — The team pioneered a new regimen of immunotherapy combined with anti-angiogenesis (± chemotherapy) for advanced triple-negative breast cancer; it established the province's first multicenter breast cancer database, built a prognostic prediction model for early triple-negative breast cancer, and developed the world's first radiomics model to predict immunotherapy response in advanced breast cancer
7. Breast phyllodes tumor care — Research on malignant progression mechanisms and targeted therapy, with a precision prognostic prediction model for phyllodes tumors
8. Breast cancer genetic counseling and screening — Genetic counseling, breast cancer screening and epidemiological investigations, with one of China's first breast tumor genetic counseling clinics

Expert Team

• Prof. Song Erwei (宋尔卫): Chief Physician, Professor and Researcher; Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Director of the Sun Yat-sen University Medical Department, President of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital and Dean of the Zhongshan School of Medicine. One of the first surgeons in China to perform radical breast-conserving surgery, he is chief editor of Breast-Conserving Treatment of Breast Cancer, providing standardized guidance for the nationwide promotion of breast conservation. He proposed the "tumor ecosystem theory," received the 2015 State Natural Science Award (Second Prize) as first contributor, was awarded the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2005 and was appointed a Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor by the Ministry of Education in 2007
• Prof. Liu Qiang (刘强): Chief Physician, Professor, Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor; Director of Surgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Executive Vice President of Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital and Director of Breast Surgery. He graduated from the seven-year clinical medicine program at Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, holds a surgical doctorate from the National University of Singapore, and was a lecturer at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before returning to China. He is a member of the ESO-ESMO international consensus expert group on young women's breast cancer, a member of the Asian Breast Cancer Cooperative Group, Standing Committee Member and Deputy Secretary-General of the Breast Cancer Committee of the CSCO, Standing Committee Member of the Breast Cancer Committee of the China Anti-Cancer Association, and Chairman of the Breast Disease Branch of the Guangdong Medical Association
• Prof. Su Fengxi (苏逢锡): Grade II Professor, Chief Physician and Doctoral Supervisor; Distinguished Physician of Sun Yat-sen University; Honorary President of Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital; and Chief Expert of Guangdong Province for the "China One-Million Women Screening Project." He founded the Breast Disease Branch of the Guangdong Medical Association and the Breast Specialty Physicians Branch of the Guangdong Medical Doctor Association, serving as their first chairman, was the first Director of the Breast Tumor Medical Department, and chaired the 5th International Symposium on Oncoplastic Breast Surgery. A long-time advocate of breast and axillary preservation, he was the first in China to carry out research on applying the Fisher technique in breast-conserving surgery for early breast cancer
• Prof. Gong Chang (龚畅): Chief Physician, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor; head of the Breast Diagnostic Specialty, conducting clinical research on breast cancer screening and early precision diagnosis and treatment. Selected for the Ministry of Education's New Century Excellent Talents program, the Guangdong Distinguished Young Scholars program, the Guangdong Special Support Program's "Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand" Young Talent project, the Guangdong Outstanding Young Medical Talent program and the Guangzhou Pearl River Science and Technology Nova program
• Chief Physician Liu Jieqiong (刘洁琼): Doctoral Supervisor and Deputy Director of the Diagnostic Department of the Breast Tumor Center. She was a jointly trained doctoral student at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Breast Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a Guangdong Outstanding Young Medical Talent and was named a CSCO "35 under 35" most promising oncology physician in 2017. She specializes in breast cancer surgery and individualized comprehensive treatment based on molecular subtyping, has extensive experience in neoadjuvant therapy and immunotherapy for recurrent/metastatic breast cancer, and has published 37 SCI papers as first or corresponding author
• Chief Physician Nie Yan (聂燕): Doctoral Supervisor, Deputy Director of General Surgery and Deputy Director of the Technology Transfer Office; a visiting scholar at UCLA in the United States and a recipient of the Guangdong Distinguished Young Scholars Fund; engaged in clinical and basic research on malignant breast phyllodes tumors
• Associate Chief Physician Yang Yaping (杨雅平): Yixian Breast Tumor Hospital; MD in oncology and a visiting clinical research scholar at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; among the first in China to open a breast tumor genetic counseling clinic

Conditions Treated (reference for international patients)

• Early-stage breast cancer — patients wishing to preserve the breast and its appearance
• Locally advanced breast cancer requiring neoadjuvant therapy and individualized comprehensive treatment
• Recurrent or metastatic breast cancer requiring salvage therapy
• Triple-negative breast cancer and other conditions requiring precision or immunotherapy
• Rare breast tumors such as phyllodes tumor
• Patients requiring breast reconstruction or oncoplastic surgery (implants, flaps, fat grafting)
• Benign breast diseases and tumors, and breast nodules/masses requiring minimally invasive biopsy or removal
• High-risk individuals or those with a family history/hereditary risk who need genetic counseling and screening
• Patients from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas seeking minimally invasive care, breast preservation and precision oncology

Address and Contact

• North Campus (main): No. 107 Yanjiang West Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou — on the Pearl River in central Guangzhou, convenient from Hong Kong West Kowloon by high-speed rail
• South Campus: No. 33 Yingfeng Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou (home of the Yixian Building)
• Huadu Campus: No. 11 Jinghu Avenue, Huadu District, Guangzhou
• Shenshan Campus (Shenshan Central Hospital): No. 1 Zhanqian Heng Er Road, Dongchong Town, Chengqu District, Shanwei, Guangdong
• Main switchboard: 020-81332199
• Website: https://www.gzsys.org.cn

For another signature specialty in Guangzhou, see our spotlight on medical oncology at SYSUCC, and for women's cancers in Shanghai, our guide to gynecologic oncology at the Red House.

This information is compiled from the official website of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University News, the Fudan China Hospital Rankings and public reports. Titles and academic appointments are based on publicly available information. It is for reference only; the hospital's latest official announcements shall prevail.