For most women with early breast cancer, lumpectomy (also called breast-conserving surgery) followed by radiation therapy has been shown to be as effective as mastectomy. Radiation therapy given after surgery is known as adjuvant radiation therapy.
The study reviewed here wanted to know if the characteristics of surgeons (such as gender or type of medical degree) affected whether women got radiation therapy after breast cancer surgery. The study found that surgeons who:
were more likely to make adjuvant radiation therapy part of their patients' treatment plans.
About 75% of women in the study received radiation therapy after surgery. This means that 25% of the women DIDN'T get radiation therapy after surgery. Patients who were:were more likely to receive radiation therapy after surgery. In some cases, radiation therapy after breast cancer surgery may not be needed. Still, it's likely that many of the women in this study who didn't get radiation therapy after lumpectomy would have benefited from the treatment.
If you've been diagnosed with early breast cancer and lumpectomy is part of your treatment plan, talk to your doctor about radiation therapy after surgery. Skipping radiation therapy after lumpectomy is the exception, not the rule. There may be very good reasons why radiation therapy isn't recommended for your specific situation. Still, your doctor should explain those reasons so you're satisfied. If you're uncomfortable with your doctor's recommendation, ask for a second opinion. There is only one of YOU and you deserve the best care.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Surgeon characteristics, such as gender or country of training, appear to influence whether a women with breast cancer receives radiotherapy after surgery to remove the cancer, also referred to as adjuvant radiotherapy, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Because adjuvant radiotherapy lowers the risk of cancer recurrence, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality considers radiotherapy after breast conservation surgery a quality of care indicator; yet many do not receive this treatment, Dr. Dawn L. Hershman and colleagues, from Columbia University in New York, point out.
The goal of their study was to determine whether surgeon-related factors play a role in whether or not a woman with breast cancer undergoes radiotherapy after breast conservation surgery.
The researchers analyzed data from 29,760 women, age 65 years or older, who underwent breast conservation surgery for early-stage (I/II) breast cancer between 1991 and 2002. The patients' information was entered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results-Medicare linked database. The surgeons' characteristics were assessed using information in the American Medical Association Masterfile.
Overall, 75 percent of the women received adjuvant radiotherapy, the report indicates. Women who had radiotherapy tended to be younger, have fewer other illnesses and more likely to be white, married and from an urban area. They were also more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer later in the time period analyzed than women who were not treated with radiotherapy.
The surgeons of patients who underwent radiotherapy were more likely to be women than men, (79 percent vs. 73 percent), to have an MD rather than DO degree (75 percent vs. 68 percent), and to have trained in the U.S. rather than elsewhere (75 percent vs. 70 percent). Women who had surgeons who treated more patients also were more likely to receive radiotherapy.
"Our study is one of the first to demonstrate associations between certain surgeon characteristics and quality of breast cancer care," Hershman and colleagues conclude.
If these findings are confirmed, research will be needed on whether these patterns reflect the surgeons' behavior, the patients' response, or physician-patient interactions.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, February 6, 2008.
Breastcancer.org 7 East Lancaster Avenue, 3rd Floor Ardmore, PA 19003
Learn more about our commitment to your privacy
© 2009 Breastcancer.org - All rights reserved.
Breastcancer.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and community to those touched by this disease. Learn more about our commitment to providing complete, accurate, and private breast cancer information.
_tcm8-332386.jpg "wellness_dvd_promo")