Breast Cancer Survival Better After Lumpectomy Than Mastectomy

[News]

Women with small early breast cancers may have a better chance of survival if they have lumpectomy plus radiation therapy than mastectomy, according to a new analysis due to be published early online in the journal Cancer this week...

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[Hopeful]

They don't address this in the article, but another difference between the groups to me would be radiation, which the lumpectomy group is more likely to get. This raises the question as to whether local radiation has systemic effects. I recall discussing this with my rads onc a few years ago. She said there is a school of thought that thinks so. Who knows? Fascinating.

Hopeful

[karen z]

It is interesting although my first thought is that I wish research design and all that went with it was more strongly a part of medical training (as it is in PhD programs). Lots of medical research, easier to publish than in many disciplines, and many contradictory findings in general. I am not talking about this study in particular but (as the article says) not any real systematic attempt to determine why this might be the case. It is the more general problem that I am reminded of.