Arlington Heights, Ill. – As perceived by both patients and doctors, the cosmetic results after “lumpectomy” for breast cancer differ for African-American versus Caucasian women, suggests a pilot study in thePlastic and Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of theAmerican Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Despite similar results on objective assessments, “It appears that there is a difference in the perception of cosmetic outcomes between Caucasian and African-American patients,” according to the study led by ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Robert D. Galiano of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. They call for further studies using validated assessment tools to help in optimizing breast appearance for women undergoing breast-conserving therapy (BCT).
Study Finds Similar Objective Outcomes By Race…
The pilot study included 21 women undergoing BCT for breast cancer: 10 African-American and 11 Caucasian women. Breast-conserving therapy combines lumpectomy or other limited surgery, as an alternative to mastectomy. Surgery is typically followed by radiation therapy to reduce the risk of recurrent breast cancer.
All women underwent detailed, “multimodal” assessments of their cosmetic outcomes. This included objective measurements of breast volume and symmetry, based on three-dimensional photographic analysis.
In addition, a newly developed questionnaire was used for subjective ratings of the cosmetic outcomes after BCT. Independent rankings of the appearance of the nipple, overall breast shape, scarring, and skin were made by the patients as well as by a plastic surgeon, a breast oncologic surgeon, and a trained research assistant.
All objective measurements were similar between groups. The average volume of the breast undergoing lumpectomy was somewhat smaller (by about 100 cc) than that in the untreated breast, with no significant difference between African-American versus Caucasian patients.
(To read the full article, click here: http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/cosmetic-outcomes-after-breast-conserving-therapy-may-vary-by-race.html)