TAMOXIFEN : Hysterectomy no problem? Just say no to morcellation!

Yes, I have blogged before on that danger of endometrial cancer for Tamoxifen patients.  I tend to think of it as "maybe someday, probably not."  And I blogged about the social worker and others who talk of hysterectomy as no disaster.  But the "side effect" cancer that would make us need hysterectomy would certainly make me feel like adding disaster to punishment. Or, compared to metastatic breast cancer, it may be no disaster.  

Maybe.  Then I read about the doctor fighting with Brigham and Women's concerning his wife's unsuspected cancer and its spread in her body by power morcellation --breaking the tissue into small pieces for easy removal (and for speed, let's tell the truth.).  And I started noticing the headlines.

And I noticed the FDA was as concerned as I should be about even removing fibroids by morcellation.

Today, July 23/24, I found this on medpage:  

Study Quantifies Cancer Risk of Morcellation

"One of every 368 women treated with a power morcellator had unsuspected uterine cancer identified during or after their procedures, a review of more than 200,000 patients showed."  I have no dates on this study, only that one report has been issued by Jason Wright, MD, of Columbia University, NY.

The FDA earlier had advised doctors to avoid power morcellation, yet more recently avoided calling it forbidden.

In January, editors of The Lancet Oncology had said " "one in 400 risk of morcellating an occult tumor is unacceptable."

The medpage article also included indications from JAMA that the older I get, the more likely there are to be underlying 
"uterine malignancy or endometrial hyperplasia."  (The things that morcellation can spread.)''

The news whirlwind can bury this topic for long periods of time.  We can't afford to let that become 'that thing we used to worry about.'

Isn't it time to write a letter?  To call a government figure?  To call a medical society?  To Tweet?

I wish you action.

I wish  you health.