Breast Cancer: Has the Time Come for a Less Mutilating Treatment?

It is concluded that for the majority of patients modern high voltage irradiation is a reasonable alternative to surgery, that women should be informed of the alternative and that for psychological reasons “they don't need to be railroaded into having their breast removed.”

Abstract

The emotional turmoil which may be induced by the threat of mastectomy was forcefully brought to Dr. Cope's attention by a patient in 1958. He opens his article with the report of the patient; she was treated by irradiation instead of mastectomy. He then goes on to weigh the value of irradiation without mastectomy as a cancer therapy vis-à-vis that of the traditional radical mastectomy. He concludes from the evidence recorded in the literature and from his own experience that for the majority of patients modern high voltage irradiation is a reasonable alternative to surgery, that women should be informed of the alternative and that for psychological reasons “they don't need to be railroaded into having their breast removed.”