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Studies Find Breast Reconstruction Safe After Mastectomy
UPDATED: 10:06 am PST March 18, 2005
Many women who undergo mastectomies for breast cancer turn to breast reconstruction surgery. Getting the surgery done at the same time as the mastectomy used to be controversial until multiple studies showed that it is safe. Marjorie Belson saw many changes in her body after cancer was found in both of her breasts, reported WNBC-TV in New York.
"I'd walk down Park Avenue, and my jacket was open, so I'd look in the mirror and I'd say, 'Oh my!' As I started the process and my figure, my silhouette, began to change, I said, 'Oh my! This is nice,'" Marjorie Belson said.
There are many women who might say this about their figure, or at least wish they could.
"I opted for bilateral mastectomies. I don't want to go back and forth anymore. The anxiety was too much. I held myself together, but there I was approaching my limit," Belson said. "I didn't think of it that way. I thought that once the process was explained to me, all I would be losing was cancerous tissue, and if taking the cancerous tissue from my breasts would give me an opportunity to have a rest of a life, that was all that was important to me."
Not only did Belson have breast reconstruction, she had it done at the same time as her mastectomies.
"The complication rate from the reconstruction plus the mastectomy is no higher than the two procedures done separately," said Dr. Mark Sultan, of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York. "It has been shown with large studies that there is no increased risk with recurrence if one has had reconstruction."
There are a variety of techniques used to reconstruct breasts. A woman's own tissue can be used, or there's implants -- either saline or silicone -- like Belson chose. Putting them in is a relatively simple, but multistep procedure.
Not only is the procedure safe, but a very recent study found women who chose breast reconstruction actually had better survival odds than women who didn't.
"It's possible that women who are offered reconstruction initially are possibly healthier, or that, afterwards, because they had been reconstructed and felt healthier, that they might more frequently come back to their physician for follow-up," Sultan said. "They might take better care of themselves, might eat better, etc."
http://www.foxreno.com/health/4297614/detail.html |
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