A comprehensive consensus guideline for physicians treating breast cancer was recently released by The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), developed in conjunction with the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and supported by a grant from the Susan G. Komen.

These guidelines outline an evidence-based surgical treatment path that will reduce healthcare costs for breast cancer patients and avoid undergoing unnecessary operations.

“[W]e decided to create a definitive guideline that helps to minimize unnecessary surgery while maintaining the excellent outcomes seen with lumpectomy and radiation therapy,” said Dr. Monica Morrow, breast cancer surgeon and Chief of Breast Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.

Roughly 25 percent of breast cancer patients return to the operating room following lumpectomies to obtain more normal tissue around the cancer.  In about half of these cases, the tumor has been removed and the margin is free of cancer cells, but it has been thought that a larger amount of normal breast tissue might reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.

The review of the evidence by SSO, ASTRO and contributing experts did not support the routine removal of larger amounts of healthy breast tissue beyond having no cancerous cells touching the edge of the lumpectomy specimen. The panel found this was true regardless of patient age as well as for women with the more aggressive, triple negative cancer types.

It is the hope of the researchers that these guidelines will save patients from unnecessary surgery and give the patients the confidence to choose a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy when medically viable.

To read these guidelines go to http://www.surgonc.org/margins-study.