A comparison of the psychological effects of breast-saving procedures with the modified radical mastectomy

Twenty women who underwent conservative surgical treatment of their breast cancer were compared with 20 women who underwent modified radical mastectomies on several indices of body image and psychological adjustment. The women were matched by pairs in terms of age and time postsurgery, and were group matched with respect to marital status. Women who underwent conservative surgical procedures showed significantly greater intactness of their external body boundaries, and significantly less change and weighted change in overall body satisfaction than women in the modified radical group. There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to body anxiety, general psychological adjustment, or marital satisfaction. The results with respect to body boundary and body satisfaction were interpreted to be the result of the less intrusive surgical procedures used to treat the breast cancer. Since body anxiety did not appear to be affected differentially by the two procedures, it may be that women in both groups were highly concerned about their bodies as a result of having had cancer. It was suggested that there was no difference in the psychological adjustment of the two groups because the women in the modified radical group were representative of that population which adjusts well to surgery. Finally, it was concluded that marital satisfaction is stable regardless of the surgical procedure undergone to treat the breast cancer.