When diagnosed with breast cancer, women may have thousands of questions running through their minds, but one they may not have immediately is: Will my choice of provider save me time and money?
Mayo Clinic researchers have answered this question with what they believe are compelling statistics that may encourage women and their doctors—and the health care system at large—to consider a different way of doing business, specifically with respect to lumpectomies as a treatment for early-stage breast cancer.
The different way would be to use intraoperative frozen section analysis to determine whether the tumor was removed completely during the first surgery. Doing this in a widespread manner could save untold hours of lost work, anxiety and more for women and tens of millions of dollars. The full study was published online today in theJournal of Oncology Practice.
Mayo’s use of frozen section analysis
Frozen section analysis, which was pioneered at Mayo Clinic more than 100 years ago, is used in various surgeries at Mayo, including breast cancer lumpectomies. In a study published in 2014, Mayo Clinic patients having had frozen section analysis conducted were much less likely to require a second operation than those at other institutions using traditional surgery with post-surgical pathology reports… Read More>>
Source: Mayo Clinic via Medical Xpress
