Lumpectomy
The data shows that women who are eligible for a lumpectomy but choose mastectomy wont’ live longer and they may have higher complications and cost - Karuna Jaggar
HWN Suggests
Why I Said No To Mastectomy, And Yes To A Lumpectomy
"When you hear those words, “You have cancer,” your life falls apart. My daughter was almost 3 and my twins were just barely 18 months. I remember looking at them and wondering if I was going to see them grow up.
Had my doctor recommended a mastectomy for my prognosis, I would have done it, absolutely. But with all the facts, all the research I did, I felt good about trying a lumpectomy. I knew if [the cancer] came back, I could do a mastectomy then. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with my breasts, but when push came to shove, I didn’t want to lose them. They are a part of what makes me feminine. I breast-fed my children…
Articles of Interest
Comparing Lumpectomy vs. Mastectomy: Survival, Complications and Cost
Several studies suggest that less surgery is better for women, that lumpectomy is better than mastectomy. Whether or not women who have lumpectomy plus radiation live longer than women who have a mastectomy, it is clear that a smaller surgery is not worse for women. And lumpectomy comes with fewer complications and lower cost.
Decades of Data Fail to Resolve Debate on Treating Tiny Breast Lesions
Over the years, investigators have come to conclude that the old model of cancer — that a few aberrant cells will grow, spread and inevitably become a deadly cancer if not destroyed — is wrong.
For early breast cancer, lumpectomy is at least as good as mastectomy
When it comes to fighting cancer, “get it out” is a common and understandable response. It’s what prompts some women with early-stage breast cancer to choose mastectomy, an operation to remove the entire affected breast. Results from the largest-ever observational study offers reassurance to women who choose a more conservative approach—removal of just the tumor and some tissue around it (lumpectomy) followed by radiation therapy.
Lumpectomy Survival Rates 'Should Reassure Women'
Survival rates among women with early breast cancer were better with lumpectomy and radiation than with mastectomy, a U.S. study suggests. When researchers followed more than 112,000 women in California with early stage breast cancer for 14 years, they found women were more likely to survive breast cancer after having breast conserving surgery plus radiation than mastectomy.
Mastectomy No Better Than Lumpectomy For Early Breast Cancer
The study's lead author, radiation oncologist Dr. Benjamin Smith, says the findings were unexpected. He's at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Patients who underwent mastectomy and reconstruction had "nearly twice the risk" of complications in the two years after diagnosis compared with patients who had lumpectomy and radiation.
Mastectomy vs. Lumpectomy: Which is Right for You?
Deciding how to treat your breast cancer can be a very difficult and personal decision.
Resources
National Breast Cancer Foundation
A lumpectomy usually removes the least amount of breast tissue. The surgeon removes the cancer and a small portion or margin of the surrounding tissue, but not the breast itself. Even though the lumpectomy is the least invasive breast cancer surgery, it can still be very effective, and further surgery may not be needed.
Susan G Komen
With lumpectomy, the breast looks as close as possible to how it did before surgery. Most often, the general shape of the breast and the nipple area are kept.
