Cancer, Cancer Treatment

That’s a tricky question and, ultimately, each woman needs to make that decision with her doctor. But there are some advantages to having chemotherapy first.

It may be a good option “in women who have a tumor that is too big in relation to the breast size for conservative surgery[lumpectomy] but who want to have conservative surgery,” said Dr. Eric Winer, director of breast cancer oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In these cases, chemotherapy can often shrink a tumor enough to allow breast-conserving surgery. Women who get such surgery typically get radiation afterward to prevent local and regional recurrence.

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who undergo liver transplantation, particularly children, are at increased risk for developing cancer, Finnish researchers report in the journal Liver Transplantation.

“On the basis of our data,” Dr. Fredrik Aberg, from the Helsinki University Central Hospital, and co-authors note, “1 of 6 liver transplant patients is estimated to develop some form of cancer by 20 years after transplantation.”

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