Axillary Dissection Not Always Needed
Posted 4/2/2012
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This is not exactly new news, but it is confirmation of a growing trend to be more selective about axillary dissection. Things have really changed over the past fifteen years. It used to that all women had a full axillary dissection as part of breast surgery (whether having a mastectomy or a lumpectomy). That gradually changed with the introduction and validation of sentinel node dissection, so that a larger surgery was suggested only for women who had a positive sentinel node. Quite recently, there has been conversation about the need for that second surgery in some cases. This is a report from Milan that confirms this approach.
Here is the beginning and then a link:
Axillary Dissection: Not for Everyone
A Study Suggests Omitting Axillary Dissection in Early Breast Cancer is Safe
Axillary dissection in patients with early breast cancer is increasingly being recommended only if sentinel node biopsy is positive. The results of a new randomised controlled trial confirm the safety of this approach.
In their trial Conservative Surgery With or Without Axillary Clearance in T1N0 BreastCancer: Ten-Year Results of INT 09/98 Randomised Trial, Roberto Agresti and colleagues from the Istituto Nationale Tumori in Milano aimed to determine whether axillary surgery can be omitted in patients with early breast cancer without compromising long-term disease control.
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