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Breast Cancer Patients: Lymph Nodes – Leave Them Alone?

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When most people think about breast cancer, they don’t often think about the small, pea-sized structures that dot the body and help fight infections and other foreign substances.  But it’s top-of- mind for many patients who undergo surgery for breast cancer.

Lymph nodes are sites for cancer spread, and certain nodes are removed during surgery depending on a number of factors.  Data published originally in the Annals of Surgery in September 2010 and today in the Journal of the American Medical Association show that certain nodes in select patients may not need to be removed.

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Cancer News Review

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This month's Cancer News Review podcast with Kimmel Cancer Center director Bill Nelson begins with updates on the field of head and neck cancer in light of the encouraging news that actor Michael Douglas' cancer is in remission. Nelson says that there is an emerging story in oropharyngeal cancers (those that are in the back of the throat, tongue, soft palate and tonsils).  An increasing number of these cancers are associated with certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), the same virus that causes cervical cancer.  Patients with HPV-associated head and neck cancers fare better than patients whose cancers are causes by alcohol or tobacco use.  He says the molecular details of why this infection causes cancers and why these patients fare better is still not understood.

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