New Option For Breast Cancer Patients

Nov 25, 2004 5:00 pm US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS 2) Often women facing breast cancer have two choices -- a mastectomy, removal of the total breast, or lumpectomy, a breast-conserving technique. Now there's a third option.

Cancer patient Pamela Blake opted for reconstruction surgery after a recent lumpectomy, but it had a twist.

“You have a little smiley face in your armpit is about all that really is left,” Blake said.

A small scar thanks to a procedure with a big name -- endoscopic-assisted reconstruction with latissimus dorsi, EALRI for short. The technique was developed by Northwestern physician, Neil Fine.

“It has to do with the way women’s breasts look after a lumpectomy procedure,” Fine said.

In a lumpectomy, if doctors have to remove a large tumor, the women’s breasts no longer match. Standard reconstruction using muscle from the back can improve the deformity, but not without leaving a noticeable scar.

“Using the endoscope techniques such as are used to remove gallbladders through the belly button, I’m able to remove the latissimus muscle from the back using just a scar under the arm,” Fine said.

In the EARLI procedure, the thin, flat muscle is ‘tunneled’ from the back to the breast, maintaining it’s blood supply at the armpit.

“As I move it to the front, I will roll it up on itself like you might roll up or ball up a piece of paper, so it takes up quite a bit of room in the front but it doesn’t leave much defect in the back,” Fine said.

“Certainly in terms of appearance it could not be a better procedure,” Blake said.

And because the reconstruction is done with muscle, it doesn’t interfere with radiation treatments or mammogram readings.

Dr. Fine says six to eight percent of women who choose the EARLI procedure after lumpectomy will go on to need a mastectomy because they have a recurrence. Using the back muscle again for reconstruction will not be an option for them.

http://cbs2chicago.com/health/local_story_329202919.html