Some surgical treatments for breast cancer involve removal of lymph nodes in the axillary region?

March 23rd, 2007 | Tags: , , , ,
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cancer treatments
Luncsfordn asked:


Why might this have a therapeutic effect in some cases?

  1. lo_mcg
    March 25th, 2007 at 21:42
    Reply | Quote | #1

    Some breast cancers spread to the axillary lymph nodes; if this has happened there is a much greater risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body, so affected lymph nodes are removed.

    Sometimes there is complete axillary clearance - in my case, for example all lymph nodes (21) were removed and 13 proved to be cancerous.

  2. inverse_mushroom_cloud
    March 27th, 2007 at 01:03
    Reply | Quote | #2

    Typically the nodes are removed only if a biopsy shows cancer in one or more. If even one node is positive, they remove all the nodes in the region.

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