Women who have undergone breast removal will be able to be better informed about the follow-up to be given to this operation, thanks to fairly comprehensive web platforms.
Let’s talk about the reconstruction of the breast or breasts removed because of cancer. Alerted to the lack of information given to the patients concerned, the health authorities have just made two fairly complete platforms available to them. Update with Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at Health magazine on France 5.
franceinfo: Why such a service on the Internet?
Géraldine Zamansky : The High Authority for Health, the HAS, responded to the patient association Reconstruction Sein Info who denounced the difficulties encountered by women whose cancer requires the removal of an entire breast, a mastectomy. With the question of rebuilding, or not, their breasts. And sometimes, as Christine Arnou, one of the association’s volunteers, explains, this question arises very quickly. Because it happens that the surgeon can make this repair just after removing the breast, in a single operation. At that time, the risk, as Christine Arnou herself experienced after the removal of her two breasts, is that this surgeon does not really leave the choice to his patient. And the survey carried out by the HAS from this alert shows that this concerns more than 30% of women who have benefited from breast reconstruction.
That is to say that there are several possible options which are not always presented?
Exactly. First there is the option of not rebuilding at all or not yet. Then, advances in surgery in recent years have created alternatives to breast implants. With muscle or fat samples used to recreate breast volume. But these solutions require skills in microsurgery. However, these skills are still quite rare. Dr. Marie Bannier, for example, a surgeon specializing in breast reconstruction at the Paoli Calmette Center in Marseille, admits bluntly that she does not have them. But she still presents all the leads to her patients and directs them to the team at the neighboring university hospital if necessary.
The problem illustrated by the results of the HAS survey is that this is not always the case?
No, this is why Dr. Bannier worked with other specialists and patients like Christine Arnou, within a committee brought together by this same HAS, to make all the information available on the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. . With a map that lists all the centers where they are carried out. It is now online from the website of the HAS orINCA, the National Cancer Institute. There may remain obstacles related to the kilometers to be traveled or the cost of exceeding the fees of certain surgeons. But at least, a first step has been taken to facilitate what these experts call a shared decision, that is to say where the patient can find her place, without forgetting of course the constraints imposed by the disease.