For many women who have lost one or both breasts to mastectomy, achieving the ideal breast reconstruction may take time and patience. While it is tempting to opt for short-term quick fixes, the reality is that breast reconstruction after mastectomy should be considered a process rather than a single procedure. Even with the most advanced… Continue reading Advances in Breast Reconstruction: Fat Grafting to Improve Outcomes
Category: Breast Cancer Treatment Options
Advances in Breast Reconstruction: The PAP Flap Reduces Visible Scarring
Women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy have many options. The gold standard of breast reconstruction is natural tissue breast reconstruction, in which a woman’s own tissue is used to reconstruct the breast. Unlike implant-based breast reconstruction, a restored breast made of your own tissue is soft, warm, and grows or shrinks as you gain or… Continue reading Advances in Breast Reconstruction: The PAP Flap Reduces Visible Scarring
Correcting Breast Asymmetry after Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction
Landmark Study Finds More Breast Cancer Patients Can Safely Forgo Chemotherapy
A 21-gene test performed on tumors could enable most patients with the most common type of early breast cancer to safely forgo chemotherapy, according to a landmark study done at Loyola University in May wood IL and published in June 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine. A release from the university notes that… Continue reading Landmark Study Finds More Breast Cancer Patients Can Safely Forgo Chemotherapy
Breast Reconstruction: Understanding the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act
A diagnosis of breast cancer profoundly impacts a woman’s life. In addition to coping with overwhelming emotions, she must make important choices about treatment and all of its implications. One of those is the financial ramifications of her illness, particularly if she will need surgical treatment of her breast. She will need to learn all… Continue reading Breast Reconstruction: Understanding the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act
Prepectoral Breast Implants: New Options to Save the Muscle
In the United States, only 30% of women who undergo mastectomy also undergo breast reconstruction. Of those women who undergo breast reconstruction, about 80% decide to undergo breast reconstruction with implants. Most women undergo implant-based breast reconstruction because it is simpler, scars are limited to the breasts, and the recovery is often faster immediately after… Continue reading Prepectoral Breast Implants: New Options to Save the Muscle
A Loved One’s Death May Spur Women to Take Aggressive Measures against Breast Cancer
A woman’s memories of a loved one’s experience with cancer may play a significant role in how she approaches breast cancer prevention in her own life, a new study has found. Women whose family members or friends died of cancer were far likelier to approach prevention aggressively than were those whose loved ones survived the… Continue reading A Loved One’s Death May Spur Women to Take Aggressive Measures against Breast Cancer
Young Breast-Cancer Survivors and Lymph Node Surgery
Younger breast cancer patients who underwent axillary lymph node dissection were likelier to experience arm swelling and decreased range of arm motion than patients who received sentinel lymph node biopsies, according to data presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 5-9. “Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in… Continue reading Young Breast-Cancer Survivors and Lymph Node Surgery
Nipple-sparing Surgery Is Safe for Women with Harmful BRCA Mutations
According to the National Cancer Institute, the risk of breast cancer is approximately 12% for women in the general population, which means that one in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in her life. But the risk is considerably greater for women who inherit a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene… Continue reading Nipple-sparing Surgery Is Safe for Women with Harmful BRCA Mutations
Surgeons’ Attitudes Influence Patients’ Decisions to Have Both Breasts Removed When Only One Breast Has Cancer
A woman’s choice of surgeon plays a significant role in whether she’s likely to receive an increasingly popular aggressive breast cancer surgery. The procedure, called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy or CPM, involves removing both breasts even when cancer is found only in one. According to a study done at the University of Michigan and published in… Continue reading Surgeons’ Attitudes Influence Patients’ Decisions to Have Both Breasts Removed When Only One Breast Has Cancer
Breast Reconstruction: Why Patient Perceptions Differ
Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is a very subjective experience. Different women who undergo the same type of breast reconstruction may have very different perceptions of newly reconstructed breasts depending on the starting point. In general, the best result in breast reconstruction today is achieved with natural tissue, in which the patient’s own body, usually the… Continue reading Breast Reconstruction: Why Patient Perceptions Differ
Secondary Breast Reconstruction: Getting It Right
For many women, breast reconstruction is a process rather than a single procedure. Some women have experienced complications, particularly with implants, that require additional surgery. And many women are simply unhappy with the results of their breast reconstruction. The goal of breast reconstruction after mastectomy is to create a natural breast with the shape, softness… Continue reading Secondary Breast Reconstruction: Getting It Right
Side Effects Not a Problem for a New Class of Breast Cancer Drugs
A new class of oral drugs designed to treat breast cancer is generally well tolerated, according to new research. The drugs,known as cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors, also have a manageable toxicity profile for most patients. Those conclusions came after a comprehensive review of toxicities and drug interactions related to CDK. The research was published in… Continue reading Side Effects Not a Problem for a New Class of Breast Cancer Drugs
Mistaking Breast Cancer Symptoms for Side Effects of Tamoxifen May Be Keeping Some Women from Taking the Preventive Drug
Women who are at high risk of developing breast cancer may be failing to take the preventive anti-cancer drug tamoxifen because they are confusing naturally-occurring symptoms with side effects from the medicine. That is the finding of a study of nearly 4,000 women led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and published in June… Continue reading Mistaking Breast Cancer Symptoms for Side Effects of Tamoxifen May Be Keeping Some Women from Taking the Preventive Drug
Restoring Sensation to the Breast after Mastectomy
More than 100,000 women have mastectomies in the United States every year. And, with surgical advances that promise a soft, warm breast that will look and feel like her original breast, more and more women now opt for breast reconstruction, either at the time of the mastectomy or later. But many of these women who… Continue reading Restoring Sensation to the Breast after Mastectomy
Physicians’ Misunderstanding of Genetic Test Results May Hamper Mastectomy Decisions
A 2017 survey of over 2,000 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer found that half of those who undergo bilateral mastectomy after genetic testing don’t actually have mutations known to confer increased risk of additional cancers. That is the finding of a study done by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and four… Continue reading Physicians’ Misunderstanding of Genetic Test Results May Hamper Mastectomy Decisions
Existing Drug Could Help Women with Breast-Cancer Gene
Australian researchers have discovered that an existing medication could have promise in preventing breast cancer in women carrying a faulty BRCA1 gene. People who carry that gene are at high risk of developing aggressive breast cancer. Currently many women with a gene mutation choose surgical removal of their breast tissue and ovaries to reduce their… Continue reading Existing Drug Could Help Women with Breast-Cancer Gene
Why Some Women Don’t Follow Up on Breast-Cancer Therapy
Researchers have found that patients who did not adhere to their medication schedule for chronic conditions, such as diabetes, prior to a breast cancer diagnosis were twice as likely to skip oral adjuvant hormonal therapy after their diagnosis. Patients who skipped medications for their chronic conditions had a 23 percent non-adherence rate to hormone treatment,… Continue reading Why Some Women Don’t Follow Up on Breast-Cancer Therapy