Adding Tool Against Breast Tumors
November 25, 2011
Healthcare Prof:
At the end of a 10-year, coast-to-coast study of girls with an unusual form of breast cancer, Richard J. Barth Jr., M.D., and 3 fellow researchers are making the case for a particular combination of treatments to stop the tumors in their tracks.
In the August 2009 issue of the Annals of Surgical Oncology, Barth, an associate professor of surgery at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS), and his colleagues – amongst them Wendy Wells, M.D., a professor of pathology at DMS – recommend using adjuvant radiotherapy on patients who undergo breast-conserving surgery to control borderline-malignant and malignant phyllodes tumors. Following the progress of 46 girls who received follow-up radiotherapy at 30 different institutions in 18 states, the investigation team located that none developed new tumors in the locations in which surgeons performed margin-negative resection. Among nearly 500 ladies nationwide who are diagnosed using the condition each year and undergo only the surgery, the researchers say, tumors recur in 24 percent of patients with borderline malignant tumors and 20 percent of those with malignant tumors.
Barth is section chief of general surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), and Wells is a breast pathologist at DHMC, where 13 females participated inside the study. The Dartmouth researchers work inside the Comprehensive Breast Care Program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center.
The journal article can be viewed here.
Source:
David A. Corriveau
Dartmouth Medical School
Filed under: French Village