Many surgeons prefer old methods of treating breast cancer
A recent survey suggests that surgeons may not be paying much attention to reports that question the value of radical mastectomy in the treatment of breast cancer.
The same survey also indicates that surgeons with more than 20 years' practice are more likely to resort to radical (and modified radical) mastectomy when the patient's nodes are positive for cancer.
Both conclusions are based on answers to a questionnaire circulated at the spring meeting of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Guy F. Robbins, MD, chairman of the New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Report, discussed the results at a symposium on breast cancer held during the American Society of Clinical Pathologists meeting in Chicago.
Dr Robbins, a surgeon, stressed that the sample —285 fellows of the ACS—was small and unrepresentative. "One cannot assume that the data obtained from [these surgeons'] answers
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