CHICAGO — Having a little extra tissue taken off during breast cancer surgery greatly lowers the risk that some cancer will be left behind and require a second operation, according to a new study that could change care for more than 100,000 women in the United States alone each year.
Women having a lump removed dread learning there was a positive margin, an area at the edge of the tumor that looked healthy but turned out to harbor cancer when studied later. There are no good ways to tell during the surgery whether the doctor has gotten it all.
The new study tested cavity shaving — routinely removing an extra thin slice all around the margins — as a way to lower this risk.
“With a very simple technique of taking a little more tissue at the first operation we can reduce the chances that somebody would need to go back to the operating room a second time by 50 percent,” said the study leader, Yale Cancer Center’s Dr. Anees Chagpar. “When you think about the emotional impact, let alone the economic impact, of those second surgeries, that’s a big deal.”