Mastectomy News and Research

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Mastectomy is surgery to remove the breast (or as much of the breast tissue as possible).

Viewpoints: Slowing health costs; What causes genetic testing to be so expensive; Iowa governor offers Medicaid supports a 'glimmer of hope'

We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of healthcare. ... Is this decline the desperately needed bend in the healthcare cost curve or just the impact of the depressed economy? ... A slower growth of healthcare cost would mean less burden on the individual family, freeing that family to invest in and live a higher quality of life.

22 May 2013

Viewpoints: Sebelius' 'ethical line'; As tricky phase of health law approaches, concerns about exchanges opening on time

One of the biggest questions hanging over the health-care system is how many young Americans will sign up for coverage once the Affordable Care Act begins to phase in this October. If too few buy insurance on the markets that the government is creating, insurance companies would be stuck covering primarily the old and the sick. They would have to pay out more per customer.

21 May 2013

Viewpoints: Health law's effect on patient safety; Angelina Jolie's surgery is the ultimate 'choice'

Much of the discussion over the Affordable Care Act has focused on whether it will bring down health care costs. Less attention has been paid to another goal of the act: improving patient safety. Each year tens of thousands of people die, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, as a result of medical error (Joanna C. Schwartz, 5/16).

18 May 2013

Women with family history of cancer need to have proper counseling, testing

In the wake of actress Angelina Jolie's public announcement that she recently underwent a preventive double mastectomy, Loma Linda University Medical Center urges women with a family history of cancer to have proper counseling and testing, if indicated, to see if they are at similar risk.

17 May 2013

Viewpoints: Controversy taints IRS efforts on health law; Another chance to 'gut' the overhaul in the courts; Salt wrongly accused

Even as the politicized tax enforcement scandal expands, the Internal Revenue Service continues to expand its political powers thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A larger government always creates more openings for abuse, as Americans will learn when the IRS starts auditing their health care in addition to their 1040 next year (5/14).

16 May 2013

Angelina Jolie's choice underscores screening and treatment costs

News outlets report on the cost of and questions surrounding Angelina Jolie's decision to have genetic testing and then to undergo a double mastectomy as preventive surgery.

16 May 2013

First Edition: May 15, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how the latest Congressional Budget Office projections could further stall efforts to reach a grand bargain that includes changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs.

15 May 2013

Search, Share, Spare campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer surgery options

Studies have shown nearly 70 percent of patients with breast cancer do not discuss all surgical options with their surgeon before their initial surgery and that such a discussion significantly affects a woman's treatment decision.

15 May 2013

UAB genetics and breast cancer experts respond to Angelina Jolie's preventive mastectomy

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who has one of the genes linked to breast cancer, revealed that she underwent a double mastectomy earlier this year to prevent following in the footsteps of her mother and succumbing to breast cancer.

15 May 2013

Viewpoints: Angelina Jolie on her decision to have a double mastectomy; Justice Ginsburg's 'blind spot' on abortion

My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman. Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average. Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex (Angelina Jolie, 5/14).

15 May 2013

ASPS strongly supports Breast Cancer Patient Education Act

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons today announced its strong support of the "Breast Cancer Patient Education Act" (S. 931). This bipartisan legislation is being introduced today, coinciding with National Women's Health Week, in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Donna Christensen, M.D. (D-VI) and in the United States Senate by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA).

15 May 2013

Looking good helps women cancer patients feel better, gives more confidence to cope with disease

A year ago, Colleen Williams was into the natural look. She seldom bothered to put on makeup and she let her long, wavy, brown hair flow free. Cancer treatment changed that. These days, when she feels well enough to go to work, Williams wears her "cute hat" to cover her newly-balding head and takes a little extra time in the morning to pencil in her thinning brows and apply concealer to make her skin look a little less gray.

30 Mar 2013

Genetic counseling, BRCA testing can reduce cancer incidence in black women, researchers say

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues in Canada have published study results focused on black women younger than 50, a population disproportionately afflicted with and dying from early-onset breast cancer compared to their white counterparts.

22 Mar 2013

Classification aids high nipple surgery decision-making

Surgeons have devised a system to help determine the severity of high nipple-areola complex in patients after cosmetic or reconstructive breast surgery.

5 Mar 2013

Anesthetics during breast cancer surgery may affect development of chronic pain

In women with breast cancer, the choice of anesthetic used for mastectomy may affect the risk of developing long-term pain after surgery, according to a study in the March issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

28 Feb 2013

Trends in patient worry and risk-reducing behaviors in women undergoing breast cancer treatment

Women who have had the lymph nodes under their arm surgically removed during breast cancer treatment are warned to avoid certain practices that can cause lymphedema-a condition that causes chronic, painless swelling in the arm.

26 Feb 2013

Surprises found in postoperative pain rankings

Patients report “unexpectedly high” levels of pain after some relatively minor surgical procedures, including some laparoscopic procedures, say researchers.

15 Feb 2013

Lumpectomy plus radiation may provide better chance of survival than mastectomy in early breast cancer patients

A new analysis has found that lumpectomy plus radiation for early breast cancer may provide patients with a better chance of survival than mastectomy. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the results provide confidence in the efficacy of breast-conserving treatments even among patients with aggressive, early disease.

28 Jan 2013

Less invasive treatment can provide superior survival to mastectomy in early stage breast cancer

Patients with early stage breast cancer who are treated with lumpectomy plus radiation have a better chance of survival compared with those who undergo mastectomy, according to Duke Medicine research.

28 Jan 2013

US breast reconstruction trends highlighted

The number of women undergoing breast reconstruction immediately after mastectomy has increased in recent years in the USA, with implant use being the most common approach, research shows.

17 Jan 2013

Mastectomy News and Research

Further Reading

Viewpoints: Slowing health costs; What causes genetic testing to be so expensive; Iowa governor offers Medicaid supports a 'glimmer of hope'

Viewpoints: Sebelius' 'ethical line'; As tricky phase of health law approaches, concerns about exchanges opening on time

Viewpoints: Health law's effect on patient safety; Angelina Jolie's surgery is the ultimate 'choice'

Women with family history of cancer need to have proper counseling, testing

Viewpoints: Controversy taints IRS efforts on health law; Another chance to 'gut' the overhaul in the courts; Salt wrongly accused

Angelina Jolie's choice underscores screening and treatment costs

First Edition: May 15, 2013

Search, Share, Spare campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer surgery options

UAB genetics and breast cancer experts respond to Angelina Jolie's preventive mastectomy

Viewpoints: Angelina Jolie on her decision to have a double mastectomy; Justice Ginsburg's 'blind spot' on abortion

ASPS strongly supports Breast Cancer Patient Education Act

Looking good helps women cancer patients feel better, gives more confidence to cope with disease

Genetic counseling, BRCA testing can reduce cancer incidence in black women, researchers say

Classification aids high nipple surgery decision-making

Anesthetics during breast cancer surgery may affect development of chronic pain

Trends in patient worry and risk-reducing behaviors in women undergoing breast cancer treatment

Surprises found in postoperative pain rankings

Lumpectomy plus radiation may provide better chance of survival than mastectomy in early breast cancer patients

Less invasive treatment can provide superior survival to mastectomy in early stage breast cancer

US breast reconstruction trends highlighted

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