Healthy breast removal often not beneficial
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Healthy breast removal often not beneficial


With increasingly better options for mastectomy and breast reconstruction, choosing to have one or both breasts removed to prevent or fight breast cancer is an easier decision than it once was.

For some women, natural-looking results are possible without multiple surgeries and uncomfortable tissue-expanders used in reconstruction. Some women have to endure a more rigorous course, but options have come a long way since the first mastectomies were performed.

Despite these advances, undergoing a mastectomy is still a major surgery. And it turns out that removing the healthy breast actually may not provide a big boost to survival chances for women with cancer in only one breast.

Researchers writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute say preventive mastectomy of the second breast only extended life by an average of one to seven months for women with stage 1 or 2 cancer. Over a 20-year study period, removal of a breast cancer patient’s healthy breast was correlated with a less-than-1-percent greater survival rate.

In part, that’s because the odds of cancer appearing later in the second breast are quite small. A 2011 study showed that, in any 10-year period, only 4 to 5 percent of breast cancer patients had tumor cells in both breasts.

Experts say numerous studies show that Americans are more inclined than ever before to have a healthy breast removed when cancer strikes. But with the odds of tumors in both breasts so low, it’s worth considering whether a double mastectomy is warranted.

In some cases, preventive mastectomy is more sensible. The study on benefits of removing a healthy breast excluded patients with the B-R-C-A-1 or B-R-C-A-2 cancer genes. That’s because these mutations put women at greater risk for breast or ovarian cancer.

In such cases, preventive surgery may truly be a wise choice.

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