Lymphedema is a condition where the lymph nodes are blocked causing the area to swell. Lymph nodes are important because they drain fluid from tissues and allow cells from the immune system to travel throughout the body. It’s a common, serious complication that is caused by treatments for breast cancer. A new surgery, however, might be able to cure this serious problem.

This surgery was pioneered by Dr. Corinne Becker. Often during breast cancer treatments, lymph nodes have to be removed from a patient’s underarm causing the lymphedema, which causes the arm to be constantly swollen and to hurt. The surgery resolves this taking lymph nodes from the patient’s groin area and transplanting them into the underarm. The trick is to take enough but not too much to cause lymphedema in the groin where the nodes were harvested. This procedure is called autologous vascularized lymph node transfer.

Despite this procedure curing some patients and improving the conditions of others, the procedure is rarely performed in the United States. There are a couple reasons for this. One, doctors tend to avoid surgery where possible and two, there has been any clinical trials to help doctors understand the risks to this procedure and who are best suited to be given this procedure. It’s also needed for insurance agencies that don’t want to cover the costs of the procedure. At the moment, the surgery is only recommended to those who haven’t been helped by conventional treatments.

Still, despite the fact that this condition is considered “incurable,” according to Dr. Becker in a paper written in 2006, 90 percent of her patients’ condition improved and almost half were cured.