Husband And Wife Doctors Claim Her Fibroid Removal Procedure Spread Cancer

[Warpy]

1. If the alternative is returning to the open surgery

they might find worse morbidity and mortality statistics far outweigh the risk of spreading an extremely rare cancer.

I checked the incidence of it, and while uterine leiomyosarcoma represents 30% of uterine muscle cancers, the overall incidence in a study in Alberta was fewer than two per 100,000 women; in a Scandinavian study, 0.4 cases per 100,000 women. That is extremely rare.

Uterine leiomyosarcoma is also a very aggressive cancer, so one wonders whether or not its spread might have predated Dr. Reed's surgery. It's possible.

Complicating the whole thing is the fact that there is no way to detect the cancer preoperatively.

The whole thing is going to require longer study, not a knee jerk reaction over one admittedly tragic case.