Breast imaging: a critical aspect of breast conserving treatment
Article Abstract:
The early diagnosis of breast cancer is becoming more common, and consequently greater numbers of women are candidates for, and are opting for, breast-conserving surgery. However, the optimal benefit of breast-conserving therapy can be achieved only with careful use of breast imaging. Accurate preoperative imaging is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the surgery. Radiography of the removed tissue should become a routine procedure which can help identify tissue in which the cancerous lesion is dangerously near the boundary of the removed specimen. Since it is becoming common to measure estrogen receptors on this same tissue, the radiography must be carried out as quickly as possible. Mammography after the surgical excision is needed to allay any concern that the entire tumor has not been removed. In addition, mammography may be used to monitor the effects of the irradiation, which is likely to be included in the patient's therapy. Postirradiation mammography should be carried out around six months after treatment, as this is the time that most, though not all, radiation-induced changes reach their peak. Since patients with breast-conserving therapy are at high risk for recurrence, a program of regular mammography is important to detect recurrence as quickly as possible. This is especially important since it is often difficult to distinguish recurrence from the scarring and radiation-induced changes that occur in the breast as a result of the treatment. Careful follow-up is necessary to ensure successful treatment in cases of breast-conserving therapy. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Cancer
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0008-543X
Year: 1990
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The sequencing of chemotherapy and radiation therapy after conservative surgery for early-stage breast cancer
Article Abstract:
It appears to be more effective to give women with early-stage breast cancer chemotherapy following surgery rather than radiation treatment. Researchers randomized 244 women with breast cancer so that 122 received chemotherapy before radiotherapy and 122 received chemotherapy after radiotherapy. All the women had had a lumpectomy. The drugs included methotrexate, leucovorin, fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, prednisone and doxorubicin. Forty-five women in the radiotherapy-first group and 34 women in the chemotherapy-first group did not respond to treatment. Overall 5-year survival rates in the chemotherapy-first group were 81%, compared to 73% in the radiotherapy-first group. Thirty-one percent of the women taking chemotherapy first had a recurrence of their cancer, compared to 38% of those receiving radiotherapy first. Women receiving chemotherapy first were more likely to develop a local recurrence, whereas women receiving radiotherapy first were more likely to develop distant metastases.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1996
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- Abstracts: Ten-year results of breast-conserving surgery and definitive irradiation for intraductal carcinoma (ductal carcinoma in situ) of the breast
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