Lumpectomy is as effective as mastectomy for breast cancer

Lumpectomy is just as effective as mastectomy for treating small breast cancers, conclude two studies from Italy and the United States.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied 1851 women with tumours up to 4 cm in diameter. In more than a third of cases the cancer had spread to the axillary lymph nodes (New England Journal of Medicine 2002; 347:1233-41)

The women were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: a mastectomy, a lumpectomy alone, or a lumpectomy followed by radiation. The women were monitored for 20 years as part of the …