New Debate on Breast Removal to Prevent Cancer

March 26, 2010 -- Counseling on actual recurrence risk can lead to a
reduction in the number of women who choose to have both breasts removed when
only one breast is affected by cancer, new research shows.
Many breast cancer survivors believe that their risk of developing breast
cancer in their other breast is about five to 10 times higher than it actually
is. As a result, more and more women are opting for a prophylactic mastectomy
(surgical removal) of the unaffected breast, even though there is no evidence
that this will affect overall chances of survival among women at low or
moderate risk for breast cancer recurrence.
Ajay Sahu, MD, a breast surgeon at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol,
England, noticed this trend in his practice and sought to determine why 27
women aged 31 to 65 who underwent a mastectomy on the breast with cancer were
also requesting the surgical removal of the other breast, and whether or not a
"cooling off period" and counseling would help them understand their actual
risk of recurrence and lead them to change their minds.
It did.
After one year, 23 of these women chose not to have a prophylactic
mastectomy, Sahu reported Thursday at The European Breast Cancer Conference in
Barcelona, Spain. Women all received chemotherapy and/or radiation after their
mastectomy to kill any errant breast cancer cells, and they were counseled and
followed for one year. After one year, women who still wanted to have their
other breast removed were offered the surgery.





Get Your Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment Report

http://www .webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20100326/new-debate-on-breast-removal-to-prevent-cancer?src=RSS_PUBLIC