Many women diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast opt to have a double mastectomy to prevent the cancer from spreading to the other breast, but a new study finds that doing so doesn’t actually improve their survival rate.
The study, published July 25, JAMA Oncology — analyzed more than 661,000 women diagnosed with cancer in one breast between 2000 and 2019. Cases ranged from ductal carcinoma in situ, a stage 0 form of breast cancer, to invasive stage 3 breast cancer.
Women who had a lumpectomy or mastectomy had only a 7% chance of later developing cancer in the other breast. The researchers also found that removing the other breast during a double mastectomy offered no survival advantage.
Over the 20-year period studied, breast cancer death rates were similar in all groups: 8.5% for women who underwent lumpectomy, 9% for women who underwent mastectomy, and 8.5% for women who underwent bilateral mastectomy.
“That seems contradictory.” Lead author “Having contralateral breast cancer increases your risk of death, but preventing it doesn’t increase your survival rate,” said Dr. Steven Narod, a breast cancer researcher and physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
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Narod said the study raises important questions about contralateral breast cancer – an invasive second breast cancer that occurs more than six months after the first breast cancer is diagnosed – and how breast cancer spreads.
Additionally, the study points out that these results may not apply to people who test positive for the BRCA gene and are therefore at greater risk. CDCAbout 1 in 500 women in the United States have the gene mutation. In these cases, researchers American Cancer Society — Says that a double mastectomy done as a preventative surgery is worth considering.
One in eight women in the United States Mammograms are essential for early detection of breast cancer.
May 2023, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force The recommended age for testing has been lowered “As breast cancer diagnoses rise among younger people, uptake of breast cancer screening has also fallen. The task force said science now suggests all women should be screened every two years starting at age 40, which could save 19 percent more lives.”
In addition to sticking to regular exams, health officials encourage women of all ages to practice “breast self-awareness” — familiarizing themselves with what their breasts normally look and feel like — so they’re more likely to spot any abnormalities when they do an exam. Breast self-examination.
