A new study shows
that more women diagnosed with breast cancer are
choosing to have their healthy breast surgically removed
along with their affected breast, called a
contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. About 5% of
patients decided to have the radical procedure in 2003,
which more than doubles the 2% in 1998.
According to a
report in The New York Times, the
study's lead author, Todd Tuttle, chief of surgical
oncology at the University of Minnesota Medical
School, started the study because so many patients
were requesting the procedure. Tuttle said he was surprised
by the increase in contralateral prophylactic
mastectomies, an upward trend that shows no sign of
leveling off and is occurring even as the practice of
breast-conserving surgery expands.
The study was
published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology
online and analyzed data from a small part of the
200,000 women who receive breast cancer diagnoses in the
United States each year. If the numbers are correct,
that means that 8,000 to 10,000 patients a year may be
opting for the more radical procedure.
According to the
study, the rates were higher in young patients,
non-Hispanic whites, and patients with lobular histology and
a previous cancer diagnosis.
The
Journal's conclusion calls for further studies
in order to understand the decision-making processes
involved in the more aggressive breast cancer surgery.
Tuttle speculates that the higher number might be due
to genetic testing after a diagnosis of breast cancer
(white women carrying a genetic mutation are at a higher
risk of developing cancer in the healthy breast), as
well as improvements in both mastectomy and
breast-reconstruction techniques.
Doctors and
patients' advocates are urging women considering the
procedure to undergo counseling and take time to weigh all
the options before deciding on the surgery. (The
Advocate)