A new study revealed that 49 percent of all patients with breast cancer undergone unnecessary breast removal operations because of improper diagnosis.
Researchers led by Jeremy Thomas, M.D., a consultant pathologist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, concluded that many breast cancer patients go through unnecessary procedures because the extent of their illness were improperly detected and diagnosed.
They studied 8,000 participants with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), which is an early sign of cancer, and examined the treatment given to them. They then found out that 2,500 of them had been through mastectomy - the medical term for the removal of one breast. They also found that 49 percent of those who underwent mastectomy either don't really need the surgery or doing it to correct a preceding surgery.
The researchers also claimed that the failure to chart the extent of the disease precisely led to unnecessary mastectomies and failure to perform mastectomies to those who really need the surgery.
Of those who underwent the surgery also, 21 percent has their breast removed because of lumps that were not big enough to require a mastectomy, and can be removed through lumpectomy.
About 34 percent has also gone through lumpectomy, but because doctors or pathologist underestimated the extent of the disease, they needed to go through another surgery again, which is mastectomy.
"It is a terrible figure, and it is quite clear that there is significant variation between hospitals," said Thomas to The Telegraph.
The researchers said that the treatment of DCIS, which accounts for about 20 percent of breast cancer detected by breast screening, was "one of the most challenging parts of breast screening practice."
This study was presented in the European Breast Cancer Conference in Glasgow and will be published online in the European Journal of Cancer soon.
