Mastectomy News and Research

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

Breast conserving surgery followed by radiation therapy is a good option for women with early-stage breast cancer who have breast implants

The new findings challenge past studies that showed delivering radiation to a breast with an implant in place causes significant problems in the implant, resulting in poor cosmetic results.

16 Oct 2005

Treatment recommendations for breast cancer should not be based on a woman's marital status

Research has shown that being single, married or divorced can influence cancer survival, but a new study shows marital status appears to have no impact on the outcome for women with breast cancer who are treated with lumpectomy and radiation.

16 Oct 2005

New surgical option for breast cancer patients

A new surgical option for breast cancer patients combines removal of the cancerous tumor with breast reduction in one surgical procedure, called oncoplastic surgery, with benefits that include improved cosmetic outcome and reduced risk of complications.

13 Oct 2005

Performing a sentinel node biopsy prior to mastectomy and reconstruction gives best results

Altering the standard step-by-step procedure that takes women facing a mastectomy from diagnosis to surgery to reconstruction can improve the process and help in determining if immediate reconstruction is the best course of action, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

10 Oct 2005

Minimally invasive needle breast biopsies and sentinel node biopsies should be performed more routinely than they currently are

Physicians should strive to replace traditional, invasive procedures for diagnosing breast cancer with proven, less-invasive diagnostic methods, according to an international panel of breast cancer experts convened at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

9 Oct 2005

Americans' risk of dying from cancer continues to decline

The nation's leading cancer organizations report that Americans' risk of dying from cancer continues to decline and that the rate of new cancers is holding steady. The "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2002," published in the Oct. 5, 2005, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, shows observed cancer death rates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1 percent per year from 1993 to 2002.

4 Oct 2005

Testing for specific breast cancer genes unadvisable if no family history of disease exists

According to the Preventive Services Task Force in the U.S., routine testing for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which have been linked to breast and ovarian cancer, are not advised unless women have a family history of the disease.

7 Sep 2005

National Health Service payout offer insults woman whose breast was wrongly removed

A Scottish woman whose breast was removed after she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer, plans to sue the Scottish National Health Service for the blunder.

6 Sep 2005

Scientists help narrow the search for BRCA1 carriers

Cancer Research UK scientists have identified a new test which may help narrow the search for breast cancer patients likely to carry the faulty BRCA1 gene.

30 Aug 2005

Sentinel node biopsy, when performed before chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, is very reliable

New breast cancer research shows for the first time that even women with large breast tumors can benefit from a less invasive biopsy method that has been reserved until now for women with small breast cancers.

23 Aug 2005

Women think very rationally about breast cancer surgery from their own perspectives

When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, her top priority is to get the cancer out and reduce the odds that it will ever return. But for some women just getting the cancer out doesn't feel like enough.

22 Aug 2005

Asian American and Pacific Island women less likely to receive breast-conserving surgery

Asian American and Pacific Island women, particularly those born abroad, are less likely to receive breast-conserving surgery for early-stage breast cancer than non-Hispanic white women, according to a study published in the online Journal of General Internal Medicine.

17 Jul 2005

Some men with breast cancer may be having unnecessary radiotherapy

A study carried out at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, showed that men whose cancer had not spread beyond the breast were almost six times more likely to be given radiotherapy than were women with the equivalent stage of disease.

21 Jun 2005

Women in the UK most anxious about breast cancer

A new survey has found that one in three British women would be willing to have both breasts removed if they thought they were at high risk of breast cancer.

13 Jun 2005

Exercise helps recovery after chemotherapy for breast cancer

Exercise after chemotherapy for breast cancer boosted the activity of infection-fighting T cells in women who worked out regularly, according to data from a study conducted at Penn State University under the direction of Andrea Mastro, professor of microbiology and cell biology.

10 Jun 2005

CAD system makes breast MRI more effective, efficient

A computer-aided detection (CAD) system is helping radiologists to more quickly and accurately determine the sizes and locations of cancers found on breast MRI—information that could change patients’ treatment, a new study shows.

20 May 2005

New test for cancer, more sensitive than any existing techniques

Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick, scientists will reveal a new test for cancer, more sensitive than any existing technique and capable of predicting for the first time whether a tumour has spread.

12 Apr 2005

Public-health efforts to increase the use of breast-cancer screening appear to have altered the types of breast cancer being diagnosed

Since 1980, the incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, one of the most common kinds of early stage breast cancer, has increased more than sevenfold. This sharp increase in DCIS – which is a tumor that contains cancer-like cells but is not considered "true" cancer because the cells have not invaded normal breast tissue – has been accompanied by a flattening in the incidence of true invasive breast cancer.

11 Apr 2005

No link between silicone implants and systemic disease

Silicone breast implants have been scrutinized more than any medical device, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has stated.

10 Apr 2005

MRI useful in assessment of suspected breast cancer patients

If a mammogram or sonogram suggests that a woman has breast cancer, an MRI should be done to help determine whether there actually is a cancer and if so, what are the woman’s best treatment options, a new study shows.

6 Mar 2005