PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mayo Clinic-led study: Less invasive surgery detects residual breast cancer in lymph nodes

2013-10-07
(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Most patients whose breast cancer has spread to their lymph nodes have most of the lymph nodes in their armpit area removed after chemotherapy to determine if any cancer remains. A study conducted through the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group and led by Judy Boughey, M.D., a breast surgeon at Mayo Clinic, shows that a less-invasive procedure known as sentinel lymph node surgery successfully identified whether cancer remained in lymph nodes in 91 percent of patients with node-positive breast cancer who received chemotherapy before their surgery. In sentinel lymph node surgery, only a few lymph nodes, the ones most likely to contain cancer, are removed. The findings are published online in the Journal of American Medical Association.

"Since treatment with chemotherapy before surgery can eliminate cancer in the lymph nodes in some patients, we were interested in evaluating whether sentinel lymph node surgery could successfully identify whether cancer remained in the lymph nodes after chemotherapy," says Dr. Boughey. Removing only a few lymph nodes reduces the risk of surgical complications such as numbness and arm swelling, she says.

Researchers studied 756 women with node-positive breast cancer who received chemotherapy as an initial treatment. Of study participants, 637 patients had both sentinel lymph node and axillary lymph node surgery. Sentinel lymph node surgery correctly identified whether cancer lingered in 91 percent of patients, including 255 patients with node-negative breast cancer and 382 patients with continuing node-positive disease.

Researchers also found that 40 percent of the patients had complete eradication of the cancer from the lymph nodes. The study had a false-negative rate of 12.6 percent, and the false negative rate was significantly lower with the use of dual tracers (blue dye and radiolabeled colloid) to identify the sentinel lymph nodes. Also, when more than two sentinel nodes were removed, the false-negative rate was less than 10 percent. Dr. Boughey says that technical factors in surgery are important to help ensure correct staging, especially in the setting of patients who have received chemotherapy prior to surgery.

She anticipates that with appropriate patient selection, less extensive axillary surgery can be used for women who have the disease in their lymph nodes successfully eradicated by chemotherapy.

The study was conducted through the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, and funded by the National Cancer Institute.

###

Other authors include Vera Suman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic, Rochester; Elizabeth Mittendorf, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center; Gretchen Ahrendt, M.D., Magee-Women's Surgical Associates; Lee Wilke, M.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison; Bret Taback, M.D., Columbia University Medical Center; M. Leitch, M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Henry Kuerer, M.D., M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Monet Bowling, M.D., Indiana University; Teresa Flippo-Morton, M.D., Carolina's Medical Center, Charlotte; David Byrd, M.D., University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle; David Ollila, M.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Thomas Julian, M.D., Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh; Sarah McLaughlin, M.D., Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville; Linda McCall, Duke University Medical Center; W. Symmans, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center; Huong Le-Petross, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center; Bruce Haffty, M.D., The Cancer Institute of New Jersey; Thomas Buchholz, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center, Heidi Nelson, M.D., Mayo Clinic, Rochester; and Kelly Hunt, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology is a national clinical trials network sponsored by the National Cancer Institute that consists of a network of nearly 10,000 cancer specialists at hospitals, medical centers and community clinics across the country and Canada. The Alliance is dedicated to developing and conducting clinical trials with promising new cancer therapies, and utilizes the best science to develop optimal treatment and prevention strategies for cancer, as well as researching methods to alleviate side effects of cancer and cancer treatments. To learn more about the Alliance, visit http://www.allianceforclinicaltrialsinoncology.org/.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org/about and http://www.mayoclinic.org/news.

Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Use of post-operative blood clot rate as measure of hospital quality may be flawed

2013-10-07
A new study published by JAMA questions using the rate of postoperative blood clots as a hospital quality measure. The study is being released early online to coincide with the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. The study examined whether surveillance bias (i.e., the greater the intensity of a search for a condition the greater likelihood it will be found) influences the reported rate of venous thromboembolism (VTE; blood clot). Venous thromboembolism, which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a common postoperative ...

Examination of less-invasive surgical procedure to detect cancer in lymph nodes near breast

2013-10-07
Judy C. Boughey, M.D., Kelly K. Hunt, M.D., and colleagues for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology conducted a study to determine the false-negative rate of sentinel lymph node surgery in patients with node-positive breast cancer receiving chemotherapy before surgery. A false-negative is occurrence of negative test results in subjects known to have a disease for which an individual is being tested. The study, published by JAMA, is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. Axillary ...

Risk factors for MACE following noncardiac surgery for patients with coronary stents

2013-10-07
Emergency surgery and advanced cardiac disease are risk factors for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) after noncardiac surgery in patients with recent coronary stent implantation, according to a study published by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Surgeons 2013 Annual Clinical Congress. "Approximately 600,000 percutaneous coronary stent procedures are performed annually in the United States. Twelve to 23 percent of these patients undergo noncardiac surgery within 2 years of coronary stent placement," ...

Exceptional fossil fish reveals new evolutionary mechanism for body elongation

2013-10-07
Snake and eel bodies are elongated, slender and flexible in all three dimensions. This striking body plan has evolved many times independently in the more than 500 million years of vertebrate animals history. Based on the current state of knowledge, the extreme elongation of the body axis occurred in one of two ways: either through the elongation of the individual vertebrae of the vertebral column, which thus became longer, or through the development of additional vertebrae and associated muscle segments. Long body thanks to doubling of the vertebral arches A team of ...

Researchers highlight emerging applications of Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital™ PCR Technology at the 2013 Digital PCR Conference

2013-10-07
Hercules, CA — October 7, 2013 — Since its introduction in 2011, Bio-Rad Laboratory's Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) technology has demonstrated the potential to be a transformative technology, particularly in clinical applications. At the second annual CHI Digital PCR Conference in San Diego, CA, Oct. 7–9, 2013, 12 scientists using Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital PCR systems will highlight ddPCR applications that have advanced their research. These researchers will share how ddPCR technology provides greater precision, reproducibility, and sensitivity than real-time PCR approaches ...

Food addiction a step closer to formal diagnostic status -- or not?

2013-10-07
BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Food addiction is not yet recognised as a mental disorder but certain obese individuals clearly display addictive-like behaviour towards food. To achieve a formal diagnostic status, 'food addiction' requires a stronger evidence base to support the claim that certain ingredients have addictive properties identical to addictive drugs of abuse. This topic is up for debate in the session, 'Binge eating obesity is a food addiction'. This year's fifth edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) recognises 'binge ...

NAC amino acid offers a potential therapeutic alternative in psychiatric disorders

2013-10-07
BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Improved understanding of the roles of inflammation and oxidative stress in psychiatric disorders has generated new leads in the search for novel therapies. One such investigative compound currently in clinical trials is an amino acid, N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), which appears to reduce the core symptoms of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, autism and cravings in addictions including cocaine, cannabis abuse and cigarette smoking. At the start of the decade of the brain, in the early 1990s, there was great hope that a flurry ...

Pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder helps elucidate role of female sex hormones on mood

2013-10-07
BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Improved understanding of the role of female sex hormones on the drivers and symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) may shed light on the complex interactions between sex hormones and mood, potentially helping to explain the increased prevalence of mood disorders in women. Most women are unaffected by the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle, however approximately 20% of women experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS), or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a more severe form of PMS. The latter affects roughly 5% of ...

GABA inverse agonist restores cognitive function in Down's syndrome

2013-10-07
BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – A selective GABA inverse agonist has restored cognitive function in a mouse model of Down's syndrome (DS) and has the potential to benefit humans, French researchers have revealed. "The drug we used is a specific GABA-A α5 inverse agonist (α5IA) that hypothetically could combat the abnormal neuronal excitation/inhibition balance associated with DS", explained lead researcher Dr Benoit Delatour from the Research Centre of the Institute of Brain and Spinal Cord (Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de Moelle Epinière) ...

Adult ADHD undertreated despite effective interventions

2013-10-07
BARCELONA, SPAIN (7 October 2013) – Up to two-thirds of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) find their disorder persists into adulthood yet only a small proportion of adults ever receive a formal diagnosis and treatment, research suggests. ADHD, a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood, continues into adulthood in the majority of children. Prevalence figures show that 3-4% of adults are affected by ADHD and it is associated with a broad range of psychosocial impairments. Dr Esther Sobanski investigates the pharmacological ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

Danforth Plant Science Center adds two new faculty members

Robotic eyes mimic human vision for superfast response to extreme lighting

Racial inequities and access to COVID-19 treatment

Residential segregation and lung cancer risk in African American adults

Scientists wipe out aggressive brain cancer tumors by targeting cellular ‘motors’

Capturability distinction analysis of continuous and pulsed guidance laws

CHEST expands Bridging Specialties Initiative to include NTM disease and bronchiectasis on World Bronchiectasis Day

Exposure to air pollution may cause heart damage

SwRI, UTSA selected by NASA to test electrolyzer technology aboard parabolic flight

Prebiotics might be a factor in preventing or treating issues caused by low brain GABA

Youngest in class at higher risk of mental health problems

American Heart Association announces new volunteer leaders for 2025-26

Gut microbiota analysis can help catch gestational diabetes

FAU’s Paulina DeVito awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Champions for change – Paid time off initiative just made clinical trials participation easier

Fentanyl detection through packaging

Prof. Eran Meshorer elected to EMBO for pioneering work in epigenetics

New 3D glacier visualizations provide insights into a hotter Earth

Creativity across disciplines

Consequences of low Antarctic sea ice

Hear here: How loudness and acoustic cues help us judge where a speaker is facing

A unique method of rare-earth recycling can strengthen the raw material independence of Europe and America

[Press-News.org] Mayo Clinic-led study: Less invasive surgery detects residual breast cancer in lymph nodes