Letter: Doctor on the Web

Helen Cornish
Tuesday 23 November 1999 00:02 GMT
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Sir: I feel I ought to reassure any of your readers about to undergo surgery for breast cancer that some hospitals have long been aware of the increased survival rates achieved by timing any surgery for the second half of the menstrual cycle ("Timing of breast surgery affects cancer survival", 15 November).

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 1995 and at my first consultation with the surgeon he raised this point and said that, although the findings at that time were not conclusive, he preferred to carry out his operations during this part of the menstrual cycle. Maybe I was just lucky to come under his aegis at Cheltenham General Hospital (East Gloucestershire NHS Trust) but I would like to believe that other consultants throughout the country have long been aware of this research.

HELEN CORNISH

Stroud,

Gloucestershire

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