Assessment of the time-tradeoff values for prophylactic mastectomy of women with a suspected genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
Seventy-six of them were followed for 83 months following treatment by lumpectomy only (n 21) lumpectomy and radiotherapy (n 27), or mastectomy (n 28).
However, many women benefit from psychiatric consultation as they are in the process of deciding whether or when to have prophylactic mastectomy.
Survival rates did not differ between patients treated by radiation, lumpectomy or mastectomy.
What might cause a shame-inducing event for the cancer patient could be obvious, such as examining a mastectomy scar during a postoperative follow-up visit.
Tissue expansion is used when there is insufficient tissue after mastectomy to create the desired size and shape of each breast in a single stage.
When asked about "decisions" made in the course of her care, she never mentions the mastectomy she had two years earlier.
The explanation is that a woman operated on with breast-conserving surgery can, if a relapse occurs, be forced to undergo a subsequent mastectomy.
