Sunday, May 15, 2016

Overtreatment for Breast Cancer Patients

Image from Huffington Post
Breast Cancer is a form of cancer that affects around 1 and 8 women in the US during their lifetime. A double mastectomy is when both breasts are removed to A) remove the cancer or B) prevent the chance for cancer based on the knowledge of family genetics. It has been assumed that the more aggressive a patient gets with breast cancer (a double mastectomy), the patient will be given a higher survival advantage over other more conservative cancer treatments (lumpectomy). But that is not the case. Researchers collected data from 1998 to 2011 and they discovered that in women with early stage breast cancer and women with a high likelihood to develop breast cancer based on their genes, found that in women with lumpectomy had an 83.2% of survival rate than those who had a double mastectomy 81% chance of survival. Not only with lumpectomy are you avoiding the many side effect and surgery complication that would come with a double mastectomy. The necessity for a double mastectomy is rare, it may seem like the easier, quicker route to recovery but that doesn’t make it the right one. Correct and proper knowledge of double mastectomies is something that doctors are aiming to get across to patients as the popularity and dangers of double mastectomies rise.

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