Many women with early breast cancer do not appear to need removal of their
lymph nodes, as is often recommended, according to a federally funded study
released Tuesday.
The study, involving nearly 900 women who were treated at 115 sites across
the country, found that those who did have their lymph nodes removed were no
more likely to survive five years after the surgery than those who did not,
the researchers reported in a paper published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association. Breast cancer is diagnosed in about 200,000 women each
year in the United States, with the cancer reaching the lymph nodes in about
one-third of the cases.
When the cancer has spread to any lymph nodes, doctors usually recommend
that nodes in the armpit be removed surgically, along with the tumor in the
breast, to reduce the risk of a recurrence. But such removal is painful,
makes recovery more difficult and leaves women susceptible to complications,
including infections and a chronic, sometimes disabling swelling in their
arms known as lymphodema.