|
This information about margins doesn't fit with the many studies that show similar survival outcomes for lumpectomy vs. mastectomy. Even local recurrence figures are not drastically different.
In reading the responses to this interesting article, it seems that we are beginning to compare apples and oranges. Dirty margins and unstable adjacent tissue would be most relevant to local recurrences. Distant metastasis have little relationship to tumor margins, unless they happen after/from a local recurrence. If distant mets happen, those cells were out of the barn before the door was closed (with whatever surgery was done), and imho distant mets probably happen vascularly, with spread to lymph nodes simply being a marker for ability of the cancer to move distant from the tumor. It's not as if most (or any?) distant metastatic spread is thru lymphatics, right?
Debbie L.
|