What Breast Cancer Patients don’t know about
Mastectomy Options can cause Lifelong
Disfigurement
Newswise — In the U.S., more than 180,000 women are diagnosed with
invasive
breast cancer each year. Many of
these women will undergo mastectomy surgery
that will result in disfiguring scars
because they are unaware of the availability
of skin-sparing mastectomies and did not ask
their surgeons about this treatment option.
Skin-sparing mastectomy is a
surgical technique to remove cancerous
breast tissue by using the same minimal and
judiciously placed incisions used by plastic
surgeons for elective breast surgery.
Despite the availability of skin-sparing mastectomies, a
recent California
study published in The American
Surgeon found that more than one-third of
board-certified breast surgeons surveyed
still regularly use the archaic practice of
cutting across the whole breast, resulting
in unnecessarily disfiguring scars even
after breast reconstruction.
“Amidst the shock and anxiety of a breast cancer diagnosis,
many women and some physicians consider the
appearance of the breasts of secondary
importance and not worthy of serious
consideration compared to the treatment of
cancer,” said Joel Aronowitz, M.D., Clinical
Chief of Plastic Surgery at
Cedars Sinai Medical Center and
founder of the
Breast Preservation Foundation, a
non-profit organization dedicated to
increasing awareness and educating women and
their caregivers about skin-sparing
mastectomy.
“We know that skin sparing and old style transverse
mastectomy techniques are equal in
effectiveness as cancer treatments.
"Therefore, every woman has a right to be informed about
choices in mastectomy surgery that improve
the cosmetic appearance of the breast and be
able to consider all options before
embarking on major surgery that will impact
their overall quality of life.”
The skin-sparing technique uses a simple, small, circular
incision around the edge of the nipple area.
The surgeon leaves all or most of the overlying breast
skin, preserving the natural skin envelope
that can be filled with an implant or with a
patient’s own fat tissue from another part
of the body.
This skin-sparing technique is appropriate for women whose
breast cancer does not invade the skin of
the breast and particularly when immediate
reconstruction is planned.
Millions of women have benefited from elective breast
surgery by plastic surgeons over the past 60
years to correct congenital deformity and
improve size and shape to enhance women’s
lives.
Great strides have been made in the understanding of breast
surgery and now the medical profession is
beginning to apply these advances to one of
the most dreaded of operations - mastectomy.
Today, effective mastectomy can be performed with far
better cosmetic results.
Since new breast cancer cases are among the highest rates
ever recorded and breast cancer survival
rates are also on the rise it is necessary
for patients and their physicians to
consider what treatment options will
positively affect the patients’ overall
health, healing and quality of life, post
cancer.
As the senior author in The American Surgeon study and
founder of the Breast Preservation
Foundation, Dr. Aronowitz hopes to also
persuade the general surgery community to
use plastic surgery principles for placement
of incisions for biopsy and mastectomy
procedures.
“Increased use of these modern, reconstructive surgery
concepts will result in a decreased use of
standard, centuries old ‘cut across the
chest’ incisions causing severe
disfigurement and long-lasting emotional
distress for cancer patients.
“These are the most modern aesthetic techniques and
principles that can be applied with the same
rigor as is given to the treatment of
cancer, and combined can result in a more
satisfying outcome,” Dr. Aronowitz added.
For more information about skin-sparing mastectomies,
breast cancer survival and the Breast
Preservation Foundation, please visit
www.BreastPreservation.org.
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