Breast Cancer Health Center

Breast-Conserving Therapy Better Than Mastectomy?

Breast Cancer Treatment: Weighing Choices

A weakness of the study was that researchers didn't have access to information on certain other factors, such as a woman's overall health, that could affect the results. Nevertheless, the results are reassuring, says Julia White, MD, professor of radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Mastectomy is still a good option, White says. But women shouldn't choose it out of fear that lumpectomy plus radiation is not as good, she says.

"We can be confident that breast-conserving therapy is at least equivalent to mastectomy" in extending women's lives, White tells WebMD.

Each woman should weigh the pros and cons of both treatments with her doctor, she says.

This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.