1- , akaviani@tums.ac.ir
Abstract: (9403 Views)
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays breast-conserving surgery (BCS) where only a part of breast tissue is extracted is a standard and accepted method of treating breast cancer under certain condition. BCS use in Iran is very limited.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate general surgeons’ practice regarding BCS and its related factors.
Materials and Methods: Structured questionnaires were sent by mail to 300 general surgeons whose addresses were extracted from address list of general surgeons in Iranian Medical Council. The questionnaire included general surgeons’ characteristics such as age, sex, work experience, practicing in a university hospital, number of breast cancer patients treated per year, preference of surgeons about performing mastectomy versus breast conserving surgery (BCS) and the reasons for avoiding breast conserving surgery.
Results: In all, 83 surgeons returned back the completed questionnaires. The response rate was 27%. Results showed that only 19% of surgeons were performing BCS in their routine practice.
Of all evaluated factors, only surgeon’s experience that was defined as “the number of patients treated annually” had a statistically significant correlation with performing BCS (P= 0.01). There was no association between other mentioned variables and the use of BCS. The most frequent reasons noted for avoiding BCS were uncertainty about conservative therapy results (46%), uncertainty about quality of available radiotherapy services (32%) and probability of patients’ incompliance for radiotherapy (32%).
Conclusion: These findings indicated that BCS is not routinely selected by Iranian surgeons as the first and the best treatment modality. Further research to evaluate patients’ outcome treated by BCS in Iran, with regard to available medical facilities and cultural factors (patients’ compliance) is recommended.
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Special Received: 2014/01/14 | Accepted: 2014/01/14 | Published: 2014/01/14