EFN

According to new research, a growing number of women are getting both breasts removed after cancer is diagnosed in one, even though there is little evidence that a double mastectomy can improve survival.

The study appears in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society and was conducted by Stephen Edge of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. Edge and his team analyzed the frequency of prophylactic mastectomies in New York State between 1995 and 2005 using mandated statewide hospital discharge data and data from the state cancer registry.

In all, 69,831 women in New York had mastectomies over the 11 years from 1995 through 2005, including 63,556 for therapeutic reasons and 6,275 for prophylaxis, the research showed. The prevalence of bilateral prophylactic mastectomies among women with no personal history of breast cancer increased only slightly.

“We have about 100 women a year in New York who have prophylactic mastectomy without breast cancer,” said Dr. Stephen B. Edge. “That number hasn’t changed despite the press coverage this subject gets and despite gene testing.”

Although the number of these kinds of mastectomies continues to be small, they are growing and such surgery comes with risks. Different studies show increases in overall mastectomies, raising concerns that some women are being treated too aggressively and whether doctors are doing the right thing for patients.