Studies like this underscore the need for this book:
Women need better resources about these important decisions. #breastreconstruction #mastectomy #breastcancer
As double mastectomy rates rise, some doctors and medical centers have developed a coordinated program where specialists help women understand that a double mastectomy gives a woman no greater chance she’ll live longer.
Top breast reconstruction centers have stopped performing the earliest forms of reconstruction with a woman’s own tissue, as a procedure known as a DIEP flap shows evidence that women experience fewer complications, particularly compromising their abdominal muscles. A leading team explains what DIEP is all about, and there’s much more in our new book to help women choose their best options. Surgery known as TRAM flaps are history at leading centers.
Here’s an interview with WJR-Detroit’s Marie Osborne that wonderfully conveys some of the questions and answers about our book. It explains why I wrote the book; the issues it addresses; describes the range of women in the book; and recounts the breast cancer diagnosis of Detroit Free Press photographer Kathleen Galligan, three months after she began working on the book. She tells how she reluctantly moved from behind the camera in a first-person lumpectomy chapter for the book.
More evidence that a woman’s breast surgeon and her hospital most heavily influence mastectomy decisions by older women. These hospital and physician practice patterns are common throughout the U.S., we found in reporting for “Breast Cancer Surgery & Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” coming June 16 from Rowman & Littlefield onAmazon.com, and some Barnes & Noble and other select bookstores.
@bcsurgerystories.com
Cancer advocates visited Congress Tuesday to call for funding for a new federal law that aims to improve resources for women about surgery and reconstruction choices. Congress must approve funding to improve federal resources, including web sites and brochures describing choices. “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” to be published in June by Rowman & Littlefield, is an important new resource for women on the topic.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a leading U.S. health research group, found that double mastectomy continues to rise among women, even when they only have cancer in one breast. A related analysis below of the research in JAMA explores what’s behind the trend and raises the question of whether doctors encourage double mastectomy by telling women their breasts will match better after a double mastectomy. “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” to be published June 16 by Rowman & Littlefield, explores how many women choose to live, without remorse, with unmatched breasts. The book also explores hospital and doctor referral practices that influence breast reconstruction.
A breast cancer survivor told me, ‘just once, I’d like to see some celebrity talk about the realities of surgery.’ Does media coverage favor stars who undergo double mastectomy, while paying less attention to those who have breast-conserving lumpectomy surgery, a University of Michigan study asks.
The University of Michigan study examines how media coverage of celebrity health has influenced breast cancer treatment decisions.
“Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” coming June 16 by medical writer Patrica Anstett, provides new resources for one of the least-discussed breast cancer issues: the surgeries most women have, whether they choose reconstruction or not. The book covers lumpectomy and mastectomy; decisions by women not to have reconstruction; delayed reconstruction; living with less than perfect results; revision procedures to fix or enhance initial surgeries; cultural issues; sex and intimacy; lymphedema; family issues; finance and insurance and more.
Well, someone had to come out with it: an app to scroll through breast cancer reconstruction options. Let us know if you find this helpful.
The New Orleans center releasing the improved app is affiliated with the only hospital in the world devoted solely to breast cancer surgery and reconstruction. We visited the center, photo below, to see what standards model programs set and to watch a preventive nipple-sparing double mastectomy with tissue reconstruction done by a top team. The visit frames the Medical Destinations chapter in “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” from Rowman & Littlefield, coming June 16.
SADIE, named for the abdominal blood vessels it uses, is a new type of breast reconstruction with a woman’s own tissue. Tissue-based reconstruction is evolving quickly. But many cancer centers still do not have microsurgeons experienced in these more complicated surgeries. For a closer look at these procedures, medical writer Patricia Anstett traveled to some of the top centers in the world and watched these surgeries now essential to a cancer program’s complete menu of options. The trips and insights are reported in “Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You,” by Rowman & Littlefield.
