How old do you have to be to avoid radiation therapy after lumpectomy?
When I was in practice, women would often ask if they really needed to get radiation therapy to the breast after lumpectomy. There was no question that for younger women, radiation was important. Without it the chances were pretty good that the cancer would come back sometime in their life. But what if the woman was over 70? We know that in general, breast cancers in this age group are typically not very aggressive or life threatening. And the inconvenience of those daily visits, often for 6 or 7 weeks was a lot for an older person. My default position was that the radiation was probably not necessary if the cancer was ...
Source: Dr.Kattlove's Cancer Blog - July 10, 2013 Category: Oncologists Source Type: blogs
New Device Slices Through Lipid Rich Breast Cancer Tissue to Prevent Repeat Lumpectomies (VIDEO)
Finding and resecting proper margins in tumors from soft tissue is a harder challenge than it seems, since diseased and normal tissue often look completely identical. Intraoperative pathology is used to visualize samples removed by the surgeon to make sure the entire tumor is gone. Yet, this technique works poorly with breast tissue that is high in fat content: it does not freeze well nor is it easy to slice without smudging. A team of Johns Hopkins graduate students noted the problem and developed a device that can hold onto a sample and slice it well enough for a pathologist to review.
The device relies on sticking an ad...
Source: Medgadget - June 27, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Editors Tags: Pathology Surgery Source Type: blogs
The Risk of Heart Disease After Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
Question: I had a lumpectomy and radiation therapy five years ago for early-stage breast cancer. My cancer is gone, and my doctor says I have an excellent prognosis -- at least as far as the cancer is concerned. However, he says I need to be careful about heart disease, since the chest radiation I was exposed to may increase my risk for a heart attack. How high is my risk for heart disease? And when doctors say, "Be careful about heart disease," what are they talking about?...Read Full Post (Source: About.com Heart Disease)
Source: About.com Heart Disease - June 24, 2013 Category: Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Let the patients make the decisions
I'm not sure why we continue to let insurers make decisions for us on our care. I completely understand that an insurer wants to keep an eye on expenses and want preapproval so they can count their beans. But they should not be telling us what care we can get - with in reason.I agree insurers should not need to pay for cosmetic procedures for example. If someone wants to fix their nose, they can pay for it (through the nose). But decisions which relate to life and death care should not be theirs to make.A new study showed that women on Medicaid are much more likely to have a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy - 60% of thos...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - May 22, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: medical decisions surgery health insurance Source Type: blogs
Does Angelina Jolie paint a false picture of mastectomy?
A woman’s mother dies at age 56. A blood test is done. The woman finds out she has a genetic pre-disposition to cancer. She takes what action she thinks she needs to take. A familiar story repeated over and over again every day. I’ve met many women who have made this choice. While not “normal”, it is a familiar situation. These women’s difficult choices go unheralded. But not Angelina. She has a voice and she’s not afraid to use it.
I am of two minds about Ms. Jolie’s announcement. Unlike double mastectomies for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which isn’t necessarily a cancer and can be treated with a lump...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 15, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Conditions Cancer Surgery Source Type: blogs
Old News is Good News for Breast Cancer Patients
Much has been made about a new study showing that a lumpectomy with radiation can be more effective in preventing deaths from breast cancer for people diagnosed with early stage breast cancer than a mastectomy. This is old news with a twist. For years the data has shown that a lumpectomy with radiation has been as effective in fighting breast cancer as a total mastectomy. The twist in this case is that it has been show through this study that this treatment option is more effective. The study released by Duke University revealed that 112,000 women were studied in California, and that of those women, the ones who had a lump...
Source: Life with Breast Cancer - February 1, 2013 Category: Cancer Authors: admin Tags: lumpectomy radiation Source Type: blogs
MarginProbe FDA Cleared to Help Remove Entire Breast Cancer Lumps
Dune Medical Devices, as we were expecting, finally received clearance, after a unanimous recommendation from an FDA advisory panel back in June, for its MarginProbe system. The device is designed to assist surgeons performing breast lumpectomies in confirming the removal of the entire tumor.Cancerous tissue often looks much like the healthy counterpart that it evolved from, but because it has a greater density of vasculature it can be identified by machine. The MarginProbe transmits electrical pulses through tissue under its tip and measures the returning signal, which is attenuated in distinct ways by tumors. The goal i...
Source: Medgadget - January 2, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: Oncology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients As laboratory physicians, our contribution to patient care is knowledge: this is the starting point from which all informed therapeutic intervention proceeds. How that knowledge is obtained and communicated is the art and science of our profession. These minimal diagnostic guidelines are designed to be used as an aid, not a constraint, in that process. The guidelines are presented in a specific format out of necessity, but any format that effectively communicates the necessary information in a given patho...
Source: Oncopathology - September 5, 2011 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
