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Reconstructed Breasts Still Need
Mammograms
Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System say women who have had a breast
reconstructed from their own tissue still should have an annual mammogram.
Researchers recently found that tumors can, indeed,
return in reconstructed breasts. Mammograms may be able to catch them before they're large
enough to feel. These findings are associated with women who had a TRAM flap
reconstruction, an operation in which doctors remove abdominal fat and muscle and move it
to the chest to construct a natural-looking breast. (TRAM is short for transverse rectus
abdominis myocutaneous.) Although more costly than inserting a breast implant, TRAM flap
reconstruction has heightened in popularity. About 26 percent of the 83,000 women each
year who opt for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy choose TRAM flap reconstruction.
Current guidelines don't recommend mammograms for women
who undergo this type of reconstruction, as physicians have traditionally believed a
recurrence to be unlikely. Janet Bailey, M.D., from the University of Michigan Health
System, says, "Of the patients who had had TRAM reconstructions for breast cancer,
approximately one percent ... developed a cancer recurrence. That's completely analogous
to what we see in women who've undergone lumpectomy, and ... we do recommend mammography
after lumpectomy." For this reason, researchers hope more doctors will recommend an
annual mammography for reconstruction patients.
A mammogram of a TRAM flap reconstructed breast is called
a TRAMogram. TRAMograms are shown to be as effective in detecting lumps in TRAM flap
reconstructions as mammograms are in detecting tumors in natural breasts. Dr. Bailey says,
"Mammograms and TRAMograms are essentially the same to the technologist who performs
the study. They compress the breast or the TRAM exactly the same way." |
