According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breast cancer currently ranks seventh in the top ten of causes for women's fatality rates. Luckily, research has helped increase understanding of the disease, thus resulting in more effective treatments. In some cases, when chemotherapy and radiation treatments fail, surgical removal of the breast is in order to further prevent the spread of the disease. Known as a mastectomy, the surgery has been performed for centuries.
Pioneers of the Practice
Although some historians argue that the removal of a breast was a known practice over 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, it did not come into play by the medical community until the early 1800s. One Parisian woman became the first patient to undergo a removal of several tumors in 1811. She survived to live another thirty years, and often wrote about her constant pain from the procedure. It wasn't until years later that the surgery became more refined in technique.
Taking Shape
William S. Halsted had been studying the disease for some time, and in 1882 introduced his self named "radical" method of surgically removing not only the affected breast but the remaining one as well. Related structures like lymph nodes and a majority of the pectoral muscles were also removed. The procedure was effective but often left patients disfigured to varying degrees. Halsted's method became widely accepted though, and the mastectomy was born.
New Ideas
Halsted's radical mastectomy was the preferred surgery of choice for decades following its inception, until 1955 when several doctors began to favor other less tried and true methods. Doctors Hazard and Crile felt Halsted's mastectomy left much to be desired in the field of patient comfort, and believed the thyroid needed to be addressed as the possible culprit. This and other ideas came to light by the late 1970s.
New Surgeries
By 1977, most doctors advocated new radical methods of mastectomy, which included removal of only the affected breast, followed by aggressive drug and radioactive treatments. This method was carried out largely throughout the 1980s, although some doctors still saw validity in Halsted's original method. The 1990s saw some women opting for mastectomies after only one or two tumors developed, out of fear of escalating rates of breast cancer rates.
Today
Often a lumpectomy (tumor removal) is advised prior to a complete mastectomy, although following the lumpectomy a series of chemo/radiation sessions are pursued in an effort to reduce the incident of any further tumor development. This also is preferred in order to save as much breast tissue as possible.
Tags: affected breast, breast cancer, only affected, only affected breast, removal breast
