Early

Women with breast cancer often opt for mastectomy instead of lumpectomy when offered a choice between the two treatments, an eye-opening new study shows.

The research could explain why so many women with early-stage breast cancer still end up having their breasts removed despite no differences in survival rate compared with women who undergo lumpectomy plus radiation.

The prevailing wisdom has been that physicians tend to steer patients toward more aggressive surgical treatment of breast cancer despite medical recommendations favoring breast-conserving lumpectomy. But the newly published study suggests the opposite is true.

"We found that surgeons were mainly recommending the less invasive treatment and that patients tended to have a good deal of involvement in the decision process," researcher Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan tells WebMD.

"We also found that greater patient involvement was associated with greater use of mastectomy."