Many women with early breast cancer do not appear to need removal of their lymph nodes, as is often recommended, according to a federally funded study released Tuesday.
The study, involving nearly 900 women who were treated at 115 sites across the country, found that those who did have their lymph nodes removed were no more likely to survive five years after the surgery than those who did not, the researchers reported in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 200,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, with it reaching the lymph nodes in about one-third of cases.
When women are diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to any lymph nodes, doctors usually recommend that nodes in the armpit be removed surgically, along with the tumor in the breast, to reduce the risk of a recurrence. But such removal is painful, makes recovery more difficult and leaves women susceptible to complications, including infections and a chronic, sometimes disabling swelling in their arms known as lymphodema.
