Sparing Women Additional Breast Surgeries
Reported November 30, 2004
(Ivanhoe Newswire)–Researchers presenting at this weeks Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago report positive findings for a new technique aimed at sparing women with breast cancer an additional surgery.
They find doctors can accurately determine whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm using ultrasound and needle biopsy. Women whose cancer has spread can then undergo just one surgical procedure to treat the main cancer and the lymph nodes. Previously, surgeons had to surgically remove a lymph node in order to determine whether the cancer had spread, which required women to undergo two separate surgeries.
The study was conducted among 57 women with breast cancer. Doctors first viewed the lymph nodes using ultrasound. If the nodes appeared to be abnormal, they then performed a needle biopsy, taking a small number of cells from the node and examining them for cancer.
Results show the ultrasound alone correctly identified nearly 93 percent of the cancerous nodes. Ultrasound combined with a needle biopsy correctly identified 100 percent.
Both those numbers are extremely high, says study author Alexis Nees, M.D., from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. The procedure, she continues, allows women to proceed with chemotherapy or definitive surgery and be spared an additional surgical procedure.
Dr. Nees is quick to point out, however, the procedure will only spare women with positive nodes from additional surgery. Women with nodes that do not appear to be cancerous after the ultrasound test still need to have the initial surgery to determine for certain whether their cancer has spread.
SOURCE: Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting in Chicago, Nov. 28-Dec. 3, 2004