Abstract

More than 40 percent of patients with early stage unilateral breast cancer considered having a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and about one in six received it, including many women who were at low risk of developing a second breast malignancy, according to new research (JAMA Surgery 2016; doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2016.4750). Graphic double mastectomy.Patients' reactions to their disease and the prospects for treatment are very influential on the decisions they make, said senior study author Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan. “If patients are told they have a life-threatening illness and that we're going to make them sick from the treatment to make them better, that puts them on their heels.”