Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Breast Cancer; prologue


Driving to the hospital on a Saturday morning several years ago, I was listening to NPR, which happened to be airing a discussion about breast cancer. One of the panelists was a woman surgeon with whom I was vaguely familiar; in fact, it's possible she sewed me up once. While training in San Francisco, in an incident well-documented in a certain book I'll not specifically hype (just this once) I suffered an intra-operative cut to my finger, which necessitated a trip to the ER for stitches. At the time, some surgical residents training at Beth Israel in Boston spent time at our trauma center for the unique experience (their boss had trained at UCSF; plus it's well-known there're no training programs in Boston that compare with mine....) I've forgotten the name of woman who sewed me up (and did a fine job), but I know it was one of those residents. And I know that the NPR panelist had done time in that capacity while I was there. I'd been grateful for the repair work. What I heard on the radio pissed me off royally.

"The only reason mastectomy was invented," she proclaimed, "is that men like to mutilate women." I managed to maintain control of my vehicle while screaming at the radio. "You shameless bitch," I shouted. "If you really believe that, you're too stupid to be a surgeon. And if you don't, you're a unprincipled self-promoting whore. Ever hear of penectomy? Know how debilitating prostatectomy can be? The reason mastectomy was invented was that at the time, it was the only thing that had ever cured breast cancer. The reason we do those gross things is that gross is all we have. We're still Neanderthals. You unrepentant hack." Or something subtle like that. I heard her and her shtick several times in several venues over the next couple of years. It made her famous, and probably rich. To her credit, I'll acknowledge she used her fame and fortune to produce an excellent book on breast disease, and eventually dropped the man-hating drivel. I'd Love to tell you her name.

When it comes to cancer treatment, we are indeed Neanderthal, compared to the ideal, and to how it'll surely be in a few decades. It's because of two most major failings: first, we have no way of knowing, for a given individual, how much is enough to cure a cancer (and the converse: we can't tell which tumors aren't going to be cured -- even when they fall into a favorable catergory -- no matter what treatment we apply.) Second: we don't have the proverbial magic bullet -- a therapy that will kill every single cancer cell, and spare everything else. With rare exceptions, non-surgical treatments -- drug therapy and radiation therapy -- can't distinguish between healthy and deadly cells. They work in proportion to the rate of cell division; and cancer cells divide more rapidly than normal ones. But that's why they cause side effects: they kill good cells along with the bad. Just in smaller numbers. And surgery -- like radiation -- only goes where it's aimed, and we have no way of being accurate enough only to remove malignant cells while leaving everything else behind.

We have good data about responses of large numbers of people. But there's a spectrum, of course; which means that we can't avoid the fact that we will over-treat some people, giving them side effects they didn't need (or remove too much or too little), and will under treat others. Some would have been cured had we done less than protocols require: some will die no matter how favorable their situation appears. Before radical mastectomy was invented, by William Halstead in 1889, women who got breast cancer pretty much all died.

Simply stated, the idea of surgical treatment of any cancer, when aiming for cure (as opposed just to biopsy or palliation), is to remove the entire tumor with a rim of healthy tissue around it, allowing enough room to include possible locally migrating cells. And it also means taking adjacent lymph nodes from the region likely to include those to which the tumor might also have spread; hoping, of course, that the surgery is being done before spread has already happened beyond the limits of the operative field. In the time of William Halstead, there weren't mammograms, women didn't do self-exam, and decorum meant that a gentleman (doctor) didn't touch a woman's breasts for routine checkups. So by the time attention was actually given to a breast cancer, it was likely to be huge.

The fact is that radical mastectomy was the first procedure to come along that actually cured breast cancer. It was a huge deal: enormously disfiguring, and significantly debilitating. I'm old enough that I watched a few being done, and even did some. I always found it horrendous. One of the surgeons who taught me had a specially-made, highly polished oak plank with which he levered the patient's torso off the operating table, still asleep at the end of the operation, in order to wrap her round and round with compressive bandages, tightly tethering her arm to her chest in the process. After the wrap -- which by immobilizing the arm ensured a long hard rehab -- we'd lower the woman back down and slide the board out of the bandages. Later, we'd begin daily dressing changes and re-wraps, after inspecting the skin graft for viability and likely avoiding the stunned eyes of the patient. Yes. Skin graft. The operation entailed removing the entire breast along with all its skin, and the two pectoral muscles; and extensive removal of the lymph nodes under the arm. The edges of the wound were too widely separated to re-approximate, so a skin graft was fashioned from somewhere to cover the ribs, which were exposed from the dissection. The effect was indeed mutilating, and the loss of the pectoral muscles, along with the lymph node dissection ensured that the arm was weakened and swollen. But until around the 1970s, the only alternative was death. Rather than some sort of perverse vendetta against women, it was done because at the time of its invention, nothing but radical mastectomy had ever worked on the gross tumors that were typical at the time.

Big changes were occurring by the time I was learning my craft, inspired in large measure by the realization that breast cancers were being discovered smaller and earlier every decade. In France (of course, it would be France) preservation of the breast using radiation treatments was being tried. I saw a woman who'd been among the early subjects: her breast had been cooked hard and brown, and was like a piece of wood on her chest: as different from the other as a rock from a pillow. But she was happy with it -- compared to the alternative, it seemed a fair trade. Surgically, mastectomy was being modified to a less radical form: more skin was left, so it could be closed without a graft. And one or both of the pectoral muscles were being left in place: cosmetically it still left a flat chest, but it was a human one, with contour and function, as opposed to bare ribs. Lymphedema (swelling of the arm) was much less common (but hardly eradicated), as lymph had channels in those retained muscles through which to flow from the arm. With no chain of patients, no long experience with treatment failures, I could be open-minded. But my mentors were of the prior era; for years, they'd seen it as it had been. Big tumors. Local recurrence. One and only one way to treat it. Is it a wonder that they'd be skeptical? Or, more correctly, worried about doing lesser operations when the data were young: when the price of failure was losing someone who might have been saved by the "old ways?" In my transitional time, in my arrival on the scene as things were changing, I could see it their way, without malice. That lady on NPR, she was of my time. Why couldn't she see it, too? Why cast it in such venal terms? But heck with her. It's a complicated and interesting subject. Let's talk some more, later.

13 comments:

beajerry said...

She sounds like a medical Ann Coulter.

Anonymous said...

The book is a lovely tool to have around and I'm glad it is available. However, I know a lot of breast cancer survivors who feel it's informational overload. One thing to consider was that until the last 15 years or so, lumpectomies were not well accepted. Even now, I know several women who were offered lumpectomies but chose simple mastectomies instead. She could have been using the shock value to encourage women to not insist on too much treatment. I've met probably about 60 women in support groups and one thing we all have in common is wondering if we did as much as we could have done to keep the cancer from coming back.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this in detail post about breast cancer. It helped me to understand what my friend is going through. She is a breast cancer survivor (double mastectomy) who has lymphedema.

Mimi

Intelinurse said...

My first pt I was ever assigned to was a 62 yr old woman with recurrent metastatic br ca. She was one of the most beautiful, dignifid women I had ever met. She and I bonded and on the second day of my assignment she showed me where her L breast had been. It was a horrific sight to see a flat scared chest, but the surgery gave her 10 more years with her family before it returned. Visually and emotionally profound for me. Looking forward to your next posts regarding this topic.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great information and service you are providing on this blog. I know that the topic is breast cancer, but as a 34 year old, I can relate to the issue of removal of the entire cancer.

In February, I was diagnosed with a 3.4 cm tumor in my right kidney that was found by chance since I had no symptoms. A Urologist performed a partial nephrectomy that left positive margins. His follow up plan was to do a scan in three months to see if the cancer came back. At the time, I had no reason to question the doctor and assumed he would know best. When I joined an email list of other kidney cancer patients, all of them questioned the follow up plan. I learned that radiation and chemo do not work on kidney cancer and the only cure was complete removal.

To make matters worse, I didn't ask for a copy of my pathology report at the time. I was very naive or maybe just in denial of even having cancer at 34, I don't know. Now, I am no longer naive and have educated myself since I do have a desire to stay alive.

There was important information in my pathology report that my Urologist neglected to inform me about. I had a Fuhrman Grade 3 of 4 which indicated an aggressive cancer. I immediately had the rest of my kidney removed in May and my HMO refuses to pay for the surgery and has since canceled my policy.

I think that surgeons like yourself would be of great service to the younger surgeons who might not grasp the harm of their arrogance and/or their oath. The landscape has changed and the cost of an additional surgery would deprive my Urologist and his fellow Group members of their share of the HMO pool money.

Spiritual Emergency said...

She sounds like a medical Ann Coulter.

Oooooh. I just got shivers.

Anonymous said...

How about "She sounds like a medical Hillary Clinton, or Nancy Pelosi, or Randi Rhodes?"


Maybe because they don't sound like rabid animals?
Just a thought...

No Acute Distress said...

Still can't get over the fact that the harridan in question was given a forum on NPR, John?? That it's filled with idiots making pronouncements like "If breast cancer were a MALE disease, we would have found a cure for it by now"? Come on, take your meds, then ask yourself which side of the fence this point of view is championed by. Yeah, that's right- Hillary, Nancy,Randi etc etc.

Dr. Scwab: my apologies for the rant. I came here for a discussion of medical issues, but I simply could not let the initial idiotic comment stand-given the obvious FACTS of the context in which your blog entry arose.

Expression of the Double Helix said...

I'm a new visitor to this blog and someone being trained at UCSF now :)
My dear mom had breast cancer when i's really young. We grew up in 3rd world country where the reconstruction was never heard of. What i know for sure is ... Having lost one or both of the breasts, and muscles around it really bring down the physical and emotional strength of a woman. There were times when I had fear to look at my mom's flat scarred chest. But now, as part of medical community, I'm proud of my mom. She gives me a reason to go into oncology. And I have a deep belief in breast reconstruction from my personal experience outside of medical community.

Anonymous said...

If you read John Adams biography by David Mc Cullough, there is a description of the mastectomy done on his beloved daughter, Nabby at age 46 years old in their home. John Adams consulted with Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1813 about Nabby's hard mass in her right breast, breast cancer. It is fascinating reading.

Anonymous said...

dear doc.
very interesting and very informative.a must read for every young surgeon.
dr pcsharma[gen surgeon]
India

Sid Schwab said...

prakash: thanks very much for your kind words.

Anonymous said...

Know all that my friend's surgeon suggested lumpectomy or less radical, but also offered mastectomy. My friend chose modified radical so it could be OVER WITH. Plus, she had a good idea of her company's reaction (She was let go within a year. Something about budget cuts, despite glowing reviews. This was a lady back at work two days after surgery.)
Tumor came back HER++, so more tests.

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