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NEWS
RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, October 25, 2000 |
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Unnecessary Mastectomy Common in U.S.
Informed
Consent of
Breast
Cancer Patients Called Into Question
WASHINGTON, DC
-- Many women who have a breast removed as treatment for cancer do not need
such radical surgery, according to an article just published
in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. In
the article,
"The Need for Improved Informed Consent for Breast Cancer Patients", Diana
Zuckerman, Ph.D., concludes that whether a woman undergoes a mastectomy or
a lumpectomy (which removes the cancer but not the breast) depends less on
her specific
diagnosis than on other factors, such as where she lives, her income
and health insurance, where
she receives medical care, her age, and the age of her doctor.
Though
it's been known for years that lumpectomy and other breast-saving measures
are just as effective as mastectomy for patients in the early stages of breast
cancer, in most parts of the country most of the women who receive an early-stage
diagnosis will undergo the more radical and disfiguring surgery, writes Dr.
Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Policy Research (CPR) for
Women & Families and faculty member at George Washington University.
"Limited information and biased recommendations are undermining breast cancer
patients' choices," she asserts.
The
article, published during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, reviews
dozens
of medical studies, and concludes that many of the more than 182,000women
who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer every year do not have access
to all the information they need to make the treatment choices that are
best for them. This raises questions about what doctors know and what
they are
telling their patients.
In
addition, mastectomy is often followed by "reconstructive" breast surgery
that frequently
involves the use of synthetic breast implants, procedures prone
to complications that require additional surgeries. "When women get mastectomies,
they often make choices about breast implants and other kinds of
reconstruction that are based, at best, on limited safety information," states
Dr. Zuckerman. "After all the research that has been done, why are so
many women
undergoing mastectomies they don't need and then having reconstruction
that can cause serious problems?"
One
reason, suggests Dr. Zuckerman, may be economic. In many facilities,
it's actually
cheaper to remove a breast than it is to perform a lumpectomy and
provide the necessary follow-up radiation therapy.
Some striking research findings include:
In some hospitals, all breast cancer patients had mastectomies, regardless of their diagnosis. In one large urban hospital serving mostly poor women in Texas, 84% of the women with early stage breast cancer had mastectomies and only 16% had lumpectomies.
"Women
deserve better. Breast cancer patients should make the choices that
are best for them," says Dr. Zuckerman. "We need to do a better job
of making
sure that all doctors and their patients have accurate, unbiased information
so that women can make those choices, no matter who they are, or who
provides their medical care."
The
National Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Families is an independent,
nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC, which "translates" medical and scientific
information into news that can be used by consumers, policy makers, and the
media. Contact us for more information or visit our Web site at www.cpr4womenandfamilies.org.
Please visit our Breast Cancer section to read an article about the study.
National Research Center for Women & Families
1701 K St. NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20006. (202) 223-4000
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