Many breast cancer patients have their healthy breast removed along with the affected breast despite the relatively low risk of developing cancer in that healthy breast, according to a new study. The findings suggest that fear of the cancer recurring drives many women to have the aggressive surgery. But there is scant evidence that removing both breasts improves most women's long-term survival, some doctors say.
"It is not that that worry is ill-founded. It's perfectly natural for women to worry about their cancer coming back. That is [their] biggest concern," Dr. Sarah Hawley, an associate professor in internal medicine at the University of Michigan and a researcher on the study, told HuffPost. But removing most women's second breast does not improve their rates of survival, she said.
In findings that Hawley and her team will present at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Quality Care Symposium on Friday, researchers analyzed data on 1,400 women with breast cancer who were registered with the National Cancer Institute's SEER program, which collects cancer statistics across the U.S. Approximately 7 percent of the women opted for a "contralateral prophylactic mastectomy" -- the removal of both the breast affected by breast cancer and the healthy breast.
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