Yale Cancer Center has received a one-year, $175,000 research grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to study reducing re-excisions for breast conserving therapy for women following surgery for breast cancer.
Principal investigator of the grant, Mehra Golshan, joins three other YCC BCRF funded researchers: Melinda Irwin, Lajos Pusztai, and David Rimm.
This grant reflects the need to find ways to reduce unnecessary re-excisions during their treatment that leads to delay in initiation of adjuvant therapy, increase in costs, negative psychological impact, more women choosing mastectomy and higher infection rates,” Golshan, deputy chief medical officer for Surgical Services at Smilow Cancer Hospital and YCC, and interim director of the Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital, said in a statement.
During breast conserving surgery, the need for re-excision occurs between 15-25% of time. When removing a breast tumor, surgeons strive for clean margins. That means targeting not only the tumor, but also excising the surrounding border of tissue. Margins are clean if no cancer cells are found at the outer edge of that tissue.
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