Disturbing trend in recurrent breast cancer treatment

Study results showed that 24 percent of women whose breast cancer recurs in the same breast are treated with a second lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy, defying current treatment recommendations and cutting the number of years those women survive in half. Steven Chen and Steve Martinez found that women who had mastectomies had a 78 percent survival rate after five years, while those who had second lumpectomies had a 67 percent survival rate. The 10-year survival rates were 62 percent for mastectomies and 57 percent for second lumpectomies. They also found that, at any given time, there will be half as many survivors in the lumpectomy group versus the mastectomy group.