(ePharmaNews) - Despite the progress in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer that increases the chances of survival for women and gives them better cosmetics outcomes, a new study indicates that women who undergo these non-radical surgeries are more likely to need another operation then.
Published on Juy 12th in BMJ, the researchers found that twenty percent of women who undergo breast conserving surgery in England undergo reoperation, hich is significantly more likely for women with carcinoma in situ versus isolated invasive disease.
Carcinoma in situ is a type of breast cancer that doesn't extend beneath the milk ducts so it can be treated in a way that keeps the diseased breast, while invasive carcinoma is a type of carcinoma that extends outside the milk ducts and so requires more radical surgeries.
Ranjeet Jeevan, from the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and colleagues examined whether the rates of reoperation correlated with patient characteristics in a cohort of 55,297 women who underwent primary breast conserving surgery previous studies from April 2005 through March 2008.
The researchers found that 20 percent of the women had at least one reoperation, and 18.5 percent had only one reoperation. Of those who had only one reoperation, 10.7 and 7.7 percent had another breast conserving procedure and a mastectomy, respectively.
Furthermore, ighteen percent of the 45,793 women with isolated invasive disease had at least one reoperation, compared with 29.5 percent of the 9,504 women with carcinoma in situ (adjusted odds ratio, 1.9).
"Cosmetic outcomes after surgery for breast cancer are an important consideration, and women should be made aware of the local rates of reoperation after primary breast conserving surgery, along with the likelihood of proceeding to mastectomy," the authors write.
