Women might be surprised to learn that a less invasive treatment offers a better outcome for early-stage breast cancer. The study included 112,000 women in a cancer registry who were followed for an average of nearly 10 years.
The small tumors these women had were treated either with mastectomy (removal of the entire breast) or lumpectomy with radiation (removal of the tumor only). The women chose their preferred treatment. Analysis of the data showed that women who got the breast-conserving treatment were 13 percent less likely to die of breast cancer and 19 percent less likely to die for any reason during the follow-up period.
Women of any age can feel confident that breast-sparing surgery is as good as mastectomy, if not better, for treating early-stage tumors: Cancer, online, Jan. 28, 2013
