
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 20, 1994                   TAG: 9404200097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

UPDATED CANCER RESEARCH SUPPORTS SAVING OF BREAST

Doctors who treat breast cancer can save a woman's life and still spare her breast, according to a study rushed into publication to offer reassurance after disclosures of fraud in earlier research.

The study, which involved the records of more than 5,800 patients, found that women who underwent breast-saving surgery combined with radiation were at least as likely to survive five years as women who had a mastectomy, or complete removal of the cancerous breast.

The effectiveness of the lumpectomy surgery has been accepted by many doctors. But a cloud arose after it was disclosed last month that a researcher falsified data in a landmark study that was the basis for widespread use of the procedure.

The latest study backs the conclusion of the earlier research that removing only the malignant lump rather than the entire breast is a life-saving procedure.

The findings were being published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was led by Anna Lee-Feldstein, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine.

``In spite of what came out [regarding the research fraud] ... we should not have a knee-jerk response and go back to mastectomy,'' said Dr. Gerard Aranha, director of the Breast Care Center at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

``[Breast] conservation is here to stay, but it has to be done under strict guidelines.''

Aranha estimated that half of all women with breast cancer are candidates for breast-conserving surgery.

by CNB