HEALTH REPORT - Breast Cancer Operation Studies

HEALTH REPORT -October 30, 2002: Breast Cancer Operation Studies

By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Two new long-term studies have compared two operations for early breast cancer. The
studies showed no difference in survival¹ rates among women who had only the cancerous
growth removed and those who had the whole breast removed.

The studies were carried out in the United States and Italy. The findings² were published in
the New England Journal³ of Medicine.

The American study was done at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. It involved
more than one-thousand-eight-hundred women. Twenty years ago, they had cancerous growths in one breast
measuring up to four centimeters in diameter⁴. Among more than one-third of the patients, the cancer had spread
to the lymph glands⁵ under the arm.

The women were divided into three treatment groups. One group had a mastectomy operation to remove the
breast. Another group had a lumpectomy operation to remove only the growth and surrounding tissue⁶. The third
group had a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatments.

The study found no difference among the groups in the chance that the disease⁷ would spread. It found no
difference in the rate of death from cancer, or in the rate of death for all causes. About forty-seven percent of the
women were still alive twenty years later.

However, the study also showed that radiation after a lumpectomy reduced the chance that another cancer would
develop later in the same breast. The chance of this was about forty percent in women who had only a
lumpectomy and about fourteen percent in those who had a lumpectomy and radiation.

The other study was carried out at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. It involved about seven-
hundred women who twenty years ago had cancerous growths in one breast no larger than two centimeters. The
researchers found that mastectomy was no more effective than lumpectomy.

One cancer expert says the studies show that there is no reason for a woman with early breast cancer to have a
mastectomy. Other experts say that some women may choose to have a mastectomy because they do not want to
have several weeks of radiation treatment after a lumpectomy. Most experts say the new studies should provide
breast cancer patients with a choice of treatment.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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1 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

2 findings   

n.发现物( finding的名词复数 )；调查（或研究）的结果；（陪审团的）裁决

参考例句：

• It behoves us to study these findings carefully. 我们理应认真研究这些发现。
• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。

3 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。

4 diameter   

n.直径

参考例句：

• The circle has a diameter of 6 inches.这个圆直径六英寸。
• A diameter passes through the center of a circle.直径从圆心穿过。

5 glands   

n.腺( gland的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a snake's poison glands 蛇的毒腺
• the sebaceous glands in the skin 皮脂腺

6 tissue   

n.组织；薄纱，薄纸，手巾纸

参考例句：

• As we age we lose muscle tissue.肌肉组织会随着我们日趋衰老而萎缩。
• Athletes have hardly any fatty tissue.运动员几乎没有什么脂肪组织。

7 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。