News

Pillar of Breast Cancer Care Shaken by New Lymph Node Study

Posted Date: February 08, 2011

A new study finds that many women with early breast cancer do not need a painful procedure that has long been routine: removal of cancerous lymph nodes from the armpit known as axillary lymph node dissection.

A new study finds that many women with early breast cancer do not need a painful procedure that has long been routine: removal of cancerous lymph nodes from the armpit known as axillary lymph node dissection.

Surgeons have been removing lymph nodes from under the arms of breast cancer patients for 100 years, believing it would prolong women’s lives by keeping the cancer from spreading or coming back. A new study co-authored by Armando E. Giuliano, the chief of surgical oncology at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California is changing the way doctors think about invasive lymph node surgery. Reportedly, doctors at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have changed their operative strategies as a result of the study data, which corroborates the findings of other earlier studies about lymph node removal and cancer outcomes.

Read more about this study in the New York Times