"Former Breast Cancer Patients Needlessly Often In Hospital For Control" Now

Former breast cancer patients who have little chance of regaining the disease must go to the hospital unnecessarily for checks. This is clear from the thesis of researcher Annemieke Witteveen of the University of Twente

. Witteveen analyzed the treatments of about 50,000 women with breast cancer, reports Monday Trouw . This shows that the number of treatments is not related to the risk of breast cancer recurrence, so low-risk women receive as many controls as high-risk women.

Ex-patients should consult their physician for years, especially in the following cases: the first five years after breast cancer treatment. Some of them receive additional examinations, for example if they were irradiated or operated on and had breast cancer at a young age

According to Witteveen, the number of visits to the hospital can be reduced by about nine thousand. She says doctors do not consider the size of the tumors and how they are treated. In addition, there would not be enough attention to assess the risk of contracting breast cancer.

In a conversation with Trouw Witteveen says that controls have a reassuring effect, the stress that controls imply. The researcher also highlights the additional costs associated with health care.

14,500 breast cancer diagnoses each year

In the Netherlands, approximately 14,500 breast cancers are diagnosed each year, according to KWF Kankerbestrijding. The vast majority of patients are women. Breast cancer is diagnosed every year in about one hundred men

. The survival rate is greater than 85% after five years. Over the next five years, it decreases by about 10%. From 15 to 20% chance that an ex-patient will receive breast cancer for the second time in the next twenty years.