Breast Reduction and Cancer Discovery
Breast Reduction Comments Off
Ending a month of breast cancer awareness, plastic surgeons at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in Seattle released a study showing additional benefits to breast reduction surgery.
You may already know that cosmetic plastic surgery to reduce the size of very large breast usually will also:
- Stop back, shoulder and pain
- Take away the grooves in the shoulder bones
- Clear the dark marks under the breasts
- Allow sports without massive breast bouncing
You can now add to the list of beneficial results: make sure you are 100 percent cancer free!
A recent study shows you could have the dreaded disease and not know it.
Susan E. MacLennan, M.D., an assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Vermont Medical College and colleagues evaluated the breast reduction cases of 202 women over 20 months.
The purpose: to evaluate the incidence of hidden carcinoma and the excessive growth of normal cells in samples of breast tissue removed in breast reduction procedures.
According to Dr. MacLennan, breast reduction and correction of unequal breasts is done 100,000 times yearly in the United States. So Dr. MacLennan and her study colleagues were thinking that, as the sampling of breast tissue increased, so would detection of heretofore unknown cases of breast cancer.
After crunching all the data, the researchers found that significant pathologic findings like carcinomas and abnormal cell growth were found in 12.4 percent of the study patients.
Once the lab had done all its detective work, the rate of proven cancer was found to be four percent over all patients.
But as women get older, the need for increased screenings grows.
For breast reduction study patients over age 40, 6.2 percent of the group was shown to be cancerous.
For patients in the study over 50 or older, the rate was 7.2 percent.
Nonetheless, none of the lesions had been identified on the patients’ mammograms taken before surgery.
If you’re over 40 and you have breast reduction, the study authors suggest telling your surgeon you would like the skin and fat removed from your breasts to be checked for pathologic findings.
The earlier the condition is found, the better your final results will be!
admin @ November 14, 2009