Although she is retired from surgery, Love continues to teach at the University of California, Los Angeles. And the surgeon, who years ago said she had problems with using hormones to avoid the symptoms of menopause, is once again promoting a controversial way of dealing with breast cancer. The test does resemble a Pap smear. Because it is widely believed that breast cancer begins in the ducts, the test is designed as an early screening tool.
Mammograms often miss cancers in the early stages.
The ductal lavage works by threading a tube into the nipple opening, squirting in a saline solution, then sucking it out and checking the cells under a microscope. Ductal lavage is so new, however, that most physicians are not trained to perform the test and many want more data.