According to two research papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine no difference was found in comparable survival rates of mastectomy and lumpectomy breast cancer treatment. The studies were comprehensive and involved monitoring of conditions through surgical treatment of 2500 women over a period of twenty years.

For well over a century, mastectomy (i.e. surgical removal of a breast) was thought to be the most effective treatment for breast cancer. Mastectomy attempts to take the whole tumor out of the body and then develop a treatment strategy of survival to the patient. Over the past 30 years, breast-conserving surgery has developed into a finely tuned treatment platform, commonly referred to as lumpectomy. Both of these procedures are now accompanied by lymph node dissection and the treatment team incorporates hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, diet nutrition and exercise regiments into each approach.

In recent years in the strategies combining lumpectomy and chemotherapy gained popularity. With these recent reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is a critical need to educate doctors who may be promoting surgical treatment strategies of 30 years ago-mastectomy.

Early diagnosis plays a key role in successful treatment. If detected early, a sentinel lymph node dissection could only require a lumpectomy on tumors smaller than 4 cm and having indications of spreading, thus greatly reducing the trauma of treatment.

There are many resources providing information regarding Breast cancer, including your doctor. If you have unanswered questions you should pursue them until comfortable with the answers.