Twenty-six percent of lumpectomy-only participants, in contrast, said they felt minimal or no negative impact from surgical scarring, the same for 14 percent of mastectomy-only respondents.

Gass says a survey of surgeons would be needed to determine why patients were not made aware of all options, but that the current situation illustrates the need to make patients more aware, and encourage them to communicate with their doctors about which surgical routes they can pursue.

“As is often the case, we need to inform patients to be their own advocates, to ask if they are candidates for hidden incision surgery,” said Gass, noting to this reporter that, “your very efforts of media attention to the lay person will drive consumer awareness.”

The survey is the first peer-reviewed, nationwide study to examine the negative relationship between surgical scarring and breast cancer survivorship, and potentially by association, the psychological and physical impacts of scars.

The findings were published in the journal, BMC Cancer.

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