Word: breast
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...examining breast lumps, doctors can quickly rule out growths that are not cancerous. If it hurts, according to gynecology texts, it is unlikely to be malignant. Manipulation can also help screen out the innocent lumps; if they seem unanchored and can be moved about under the skin, they are usually benign cysts. A needle biopsy, in which a needle is inserted into the lump and fluid or cells are withdrawn, can also be used to identify cysts. But some growths are too small or too well concealed behind other tissues for such procedures. In those cases, the only...
...cases in which the tissue proves to be cancerous, immediate surgery is the only prudent remedy. How drastic that surgery must be, however, is a matter of considerable debate. For some years now, the standard treatment for breast cancer has been the radical mastectomy, a traumatic and disfiguring operation in which the surgeon removes not only the breast but other tissue that may have been invaded by cancerous cells: the pectoral muscles that support the breast and the lymph nodes under the affected arm. There is growing opposition to such extensive surgery, some of it from women's liberationists...
...George Crile of the Cleveland Clinic considers the radical mastectomy a holdover from the 19th century. For many cases he advocates an operation called partial mastectomy, which, while more serious than a lumpectomy, still spares most of the breast. Crile's wife Helga, daughter of Poet Carl Sandburg, had the operation eight months ago, and Crile feels that its widespread use could make women more willing to face a diagnosis of breast cancer...
...cancer isn't going to grow that much in a day or two," says Robbins. "But if a woman decides to go surgeon shopping and delays a couple of weeks, she's taking her life in her hands. You can't play Russian roulette with breast cancer...
...whatever has to be done to help me live," said Mrs. Ruby Flynn, 41, of Atlanta, when she entered Piedmont Hospital for a biopsy and-ultimately-a mastectomy two weeks ago. But no woman can really anticipate the shocking reality of awakening to discover that one of her breasts is gone. Her husband's tears told Gina Thompson, 36, of Malibu, Calif., the result of her operation. "Because everyone was so upset, at first I was more aware that I had lost my breast," she said. "It was only a week or so later that it fully dawned...