In a nutshell
The authors aimed to assess and compare a number of surgical procedures used to treat and limit the risk of developing breast cancer.
The study showed that there was no significant difference between contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) and breast-conserving treatment (BCT) on survival from breast cancer.
Some background
Contralateral breast cancer is the development of a second tumor in a woman's other breast. This may often be caused by the spread of the initial tumor to the second breast (metastasis). Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) is a procedure to remove the other, unaffected breast before metastasis can occur. However, because the risk of developing contralateral breast cancer is low in many women, it is not clear that this surgery is always beneficial.
Methods & findings
The aims of this study were to analyze the growing trend in breast cancer treatment surgeries and their impact on overall survival.
A total of 494,488 women listed in a National Cancer Institute database were included in this study. These patients were diagnosed with a range of stage 1 to stage 3 breast cancer. Type of surgery and overall survival were examined.
CPM, breast conserving surgery plus radiation (BCT, removal of the breast cancer but not the breast) and unilateral mastectomy (removal of the affected breast only) were the 3 procedures compared in this study.
Out of the total women, 59.6% underwent BCT, 33.4% underwent unilateral mastectomy and 7% underwent CPM. The age of those who underwent CPM was significantly lower than those who received both of the other procedures. The rate of CPM rose from 3.9% to 12.7% between 2002 and 2012.
CPM increased a woman's likelihood of overall survival by 8%, but this increase was not significantly different from BCT.
BCT and CMP both showed consistent increased survival over unilateral mastectomy.
The bottom line
The authors concluded that while the rates of CPM have increased almost 3-fold in the last 10 years, it displays similar survival chances to BCT.
What’s next?
Discuss surgical options with your physician.
Published By :
Annals of Surgery
Date :
Mar 08, 2016
