Breast Cancer Patients with Disabilities Less Likely to Get Breast-Conserving Surgery

 

 

Behind the Cancer Headlines®

November 8, 2006

 

 

A new study of records of women younger than 65 who received a diagnosis of localized breast cancer and who also received disability payments from the federal government found that women with disabilities were less likely than those without disabilities to be treated with breast-conserving surgery.

 

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found that women with disabilities did not survive as long after breast cancer was diagnosed, but the shorter survival could not be explained by the difference in treatment.

 

 

SOURCES:

 

Annals of Internal Medicine, November 7, 2006

American College of Physicians (http://www.acponline.org)