According to Mehra Golshan, MD, director of breast surgery at the Dana Farber Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, surgeons are able to remove less and less tissue for the breast as lumpectomy techniques advance. Dr. Golshan said advancements in the procedure have also reduced the amount of radiation therapy needed afterwards — in some cases, from five weeks to as few as one.
Dr. Golshan said traditionally, breast cancer patients had surgery to remove all the lymph nodes under the arm, but now only some lymph nodes are removed. If cancer has not spread to the “guardian lymph nodes,” the surgeon does not remove any more.
Around 80 percent of breast cancer patients should have the option for breast conserving therapy, while 20 percent must undergo a mastectomy, according to the report.
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