A new study has found that a large number of women who undergo lumpectomies to treat breast cancer find the procedure to be ineffective and have to eventually have followup surgeries to treat their illness.
The New York Times recently reported on a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association that studied the medical records of 2,206 women who had lumpectomies at one of four hospitals across the country. The data found that 22.9 percent of the records found that more than one operation was performed.
Dr. Laurence E. McCahill, the author of the study and a surgeon and assistant director of the Lacks Cancer Center in Michigan, undertook the study to try and clear up the uncertainty that has been linked with lumpectomies for years now. Various studies have found that anywhere from zero to seventy percent of patients who have undergone the procedure eventually need to continue treatment with at least one more surgery to remove cancer cells.
Approximately half of the repeat operations that had to be done were conducted on women whose pathology reports showed that the initial surgery had probably not helped them at all.
McCahill added that repeat rates for other cancer operation rates were generally not as high, mostly due to the fact that are usually trying to spare tissue for cosmetic reasons in lumpectomies and could miss cancer cells as a result.
Dr. Monica Morrow, the chief of breast surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, hoped that the study results could potentially lead the charge for surgical guidelines for lumpectomies to be created.
If you or a loved one have undergone a medical treatment to fix an ailment or disease that ended up being ineffective, contact Sokolove Law today to learn more about potentially pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
General Medical Malpractice