More men with breast cancer opt for double mastectomies, study says
Recent studies show that more men with breast cancer are opting to get both their breasts removed, even the healthy one. It was found that between 2004 and 2011, the rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomies in men nearly doubled, with 5.6 percent of men with breast cancer undergoing the operation in 2011, compared with 3 percent in 2004.
A contralateral prophylactic mastectomy is the removal of a healthy, unaffected breast after a diagnosis of invasive cancer in the other breast.
However researchers cautioned that this type of mastectomy isn’t always necessary. “[The operation] is only recommended for a small proportion of men and the rates observed in the new study are higher than this proportion”, said Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance and health services research at the American Cancer Society and the lead researcher on the study, according to Live Science. He also went on to add that there’s a lack of evidence to suggest that such mastectomies help patients live longer.
The researchers had examined data from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries on 6,332 men who had breast cancer in one breast. This study was published today on the 2nd of September 2015 in the journal JAMA Surgery.
