Sigh of Relief for Cancer Patients : New study backs lumpectomy/radiation approach after recent test scandal
Recent disclosures that some breast cancer research results were falsified caused anger and fear among many of the millions of women who have undergone treatment for the disease. They will receive badly needed reassurance from a new study, published this week.
UC Irvine researchers found that lumpectomies--in which only a cancerous tumor is removed--followed by radiation treatment are as safe and effective as mastectomies, in which the breast and the lymph nodes are removed.
The university researchers studied nearly 6,000 women in Orange County whose breast cancers were diagnosed between 1984 and 1990. The researchers found that larger hospitals, especially those affiliated with universities, were more likely to perform lumpectomies. The study urged that the procedure be used more frequently.
The results reinforced the conclusions of the National Cancer Institute, which insisted last month that falsifications of research in an international study of breast cancer did not undercut the basic findings. After a Montreal researcher was found to have altered background data on 100 women in the study and after a “discrepancy” was found in files of another Montreal hospital, the coordinator of the international research was forced to resign.
The Journal of the American Medical Assn., which published the results of the new study, rightly recognized the need for reassurance by making it the lead article. A JAMA editor called the fraud “appalling and tragic.”
It is estimated that one in eight women will suffer breast cancer, a disease that carries with it a strong emotional component. Two decades ago, a common treatment was removal of an entire breast and the pectoral muscle. Later, the amount removed usually was reduced to the breast and the lymph nodes. In the last decade, lumpectomy and radiation treatment have become more widespread.
Experts said that patients and doctors alike need more education about the benefits of lumpectomy. For women fighting a terrifying disease, UCI researchers have provided valuable information and grounds for optimism that less drastic treatments indeed can be safe and effective.
