Word: breast
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Because the mastectomy is so firmly entrenched in American medicine, many breast-cancer patients are never told about the alternatives. To remedy this, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Hawaii and Wisconsin have passed laws that specifically require doctors to inform patients of options in treatment before a final decision is made. Even so, reports Hellman, the various approaches are generally offered with "varying degrees of enthusiasm, depending on the physician...
...these patients chemotherapy might be used as an added safeguard. According to Veronesi's colleague, Dr. Gianni Bonadonna, a leading authority on chemotherapy, there is really only one reason for a complete mastectomy: when the tumor is so large that it fills one-third or more of the breast. In that case, he asks, "What would you be leaving behind...
...getting by with less surgery, and improving the chances for survival, is early detection of the disease: eight out of ten women treated for the incipient stage of breast cancer, known as stage 1, survive for ten years or more; the percentages drop off sharply with later detection...
Because the risk of breast malignancy increases with age, the American Cancer Society has for nearly a decade urged women 50 and over to have their breasts X-rayed annually. This summer, the A.C.S. revised its recommendation to include women age 40 through 49, citing the improved accuracy and safety of low-dose mammography. The first line of defense for women of all ages, however, is self-examination. In 1970 only 25% of breast tumors were detected at stage 1. By 1980, as more women learned how to examine their breasts, the proportion had grown...
...knew there was something wrong, but I just didn't want to face it." Perhaps, says Bonadonna, the availability of less disfiguring treatments will lead to less procrastination. "Women will realize that if they come in early, they will not be punished by the removal of a breast.'' -By Claudia Wallis. Reported by Mary Carpenter/Venice and Carol Foote/Santa Cruz