Removing more tissue during a partial mastectomy could spare thousands of breast cancer patients a second surgery, according to a Yale Cancer Center study. The findings were published online May 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. In this study of 235 patients with breast cancer ranging from stage 0 to stage III, surgeons performed a partial mastectomy as they normally would. Patients were then randomized in the operating room to either have additional CSM removed or not.
“Despite their best efforts, surgeons could not predict where the cancer was close to the edge,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Anees Chagpar, associate professor of surgery (oncology) at Yale School of Medicine and director of The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. “Taking cavity shave margins cut the positive margin rate in half, without compromising cosmetic outcome or increasing complication rates.” Patients in the study will be followed for five years to evaluate the impact of the technique on recurrence rates.
“This randomized controlled trial has the potential to have a huge impact for breast cancer patients,” Chagpar said. “No one likes going back to the operating room, especially not the patients who face the emotional burden of another surgery.”

Source Newsroom: Yale Cancer Center
Citations
2015 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; New England Journal of Medicine