UHCW and University of Warwick deliver pioneering study on post-surgery monitoring for women with early-stage breast cancer

A five-year study that followed women aged 50 and older with a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery has been published in The Lancet. 

The research, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), showed follow-up surveillance with less frequent mammograms put patients at no greater risk and could reduce the stress of waiting for results.

Sponsored by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust and led by Professor Janet Dunn, Warwick Clinical Trials Unitand The University of Warwick, the Mammo-50 trial is the first major study to investigate the safest, most effective monitoring of women after surgery.

Focusing on women aged 50 with early-stage breast cancer (that has not spread beyond breast tissue or local lymph nodes), the trial followed their progress across 114 NHS hospitals over five years.

Three years after breast surgery, 5,235 women, who were cancer-free at the point of enrolling in the study, were invited to either yearly or less-frequent mammograms (every two years for patients who had a lumpectomy and every three years for patients who had a mastectomy). The results show there is no difference between the groups of patients in terms of their breast cancer reoccurring or their survival.

UHCW Consultant Breast Surgeon Mr Hamed Khan said: “At UHCW we are committed to providing the best care for our patients based on evidence.

“We are proud to have been the co-sponsor for this important research which gives us direct evidence to advise what is best for the management of post-op patients.”

Different cancer centres offer different forms of follow-up, with no gold-standard guideline for monitoring women post-surgery. Mammo-50 is the first major study to look at this and present evidence that could be used to amend guidelines on mammographic surveillance for this patient group.

Professor Dunn added: “Less frequent mammographic surveillance decreases the inconvenience for women having to undergo unnecessary mammograms, reducing the associated stress of waiting for results.”

Margaret Grayson, independent patient on the oversight committee and member of Independent Cancer Patients’ Voice, says: “This is great news for patients as it reduces the visits to hospital and scans needed whilst still monitoring patients in an optimal way.”

To have an article published in The Lancet, studies go through a thorough peer-review and editing process and very few papers make it through to publication. The full paper can be viewed here, with supplementary information here.