Saturday, May 26, 2007

Axillary Node Dissection

I'm curious - has anyone ever come across any research or statistics regarding the prevalence of cancer metastasizing following an axillary node dissection vs. those who keep their lymphatic systems 'intact'? It just seems like once you open up the lymphatic system to "sample" the lymph nodes, you're just inviting spread... I don't know (nobody knows anything for sure!), but it's just one of those things that doesn't seem to make much common sense. Does the benefit outweigh the risk? Is anyone checking? I know my mom's surgeon had never seen any research on that. Anyone?

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