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SURGICAL TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER IN NEW SOUTH WALES 1991, 1992
Author(s) -
Adelson Pamela,
Lim Kim,
Churches Tim,
Nguyen Ru
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1997.tb01886.x
Subject(s) - medicine , breast cancer , mastectomy , metropolitan area , radiation therapy , cancer , cancer registry , family medicine , demography , surgery , pathology , sociology
Background : The purpose of this study was to examine existing data on women diagnosed with breast cancer in New South Wales in 1991 and 1992 and to describe surgical treatments received on an inpatient basis. Methods : Analyses were based on the linkage of two databases: the New South Wales Central Cancer Registry and the New South Wales Health Department's Inpatient Statistics Collection. Data were limited to women who were resident and treated in New South Wales. Main analyses were restricted to definitive surgical procedures. Results : Thirty‐six per cent of women treated surgically for breast cancer in 1991 had breast‐conserving therapy. This had increased to 39% in 1992. There were substantial geographical variations in the use of breast‐conserving therapy in New South Wales which could not be explained by patient characteristics. Age, degree of spread at diagnosis, and area health service/health region were all found to have an independent association with the probability of having a mastectomy. Conclusions : Women with a localized degree of spread living in non‐metropolitan areas (Health Regions) were almost twice as likely to have a mastectomy as compared with similar women who were resident in metropolitan areas (Area Health Services). The concentration of radiotherapy services may have contributed to the urban/rural variation in breast‐conserving therapy in New South Wales, but it is also likely that some of the variations that were observed may be a reflection of the failure of clinicians to use best current practice.