despite concerns about the appearance, the few survivors of breast cancer who has opted for a double mastectomy as precautionary measure regretted their decision decades later, a new study concludes.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, interviewed hundreds of women who have sacrificed a healthy breast in the hope of avoiding another cancer. Twenty years after their surgery, 97 per cent said that they make the same decision once more.
"The real question is, how they feel you long term?" said the researcher Dr. Judy v. Boughey, breast surgeon and associate professor of surgery. "I want my patients to do what they will be satisfied in 10 or 20 years."
Previous research found that women who had undergone a prophylactic double mastectomy were satisfied with their decision shortly after the surgery. This new study shows that those who are "satisfied" that decision is still many years after, said Boughey.
The findings were presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Washington, D.C. presented research at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a refereed journal.
With improved today breast reconstruction techniques, women are likely to "be even happier with the results" that they were in recent decades, noted Dr. Stephanie Bernik, Chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New Yorkwho is familiar with the findings.
Breast cancer affects approximately one in eight U.S. women, according to the National Cancer Institute. Almost 90 per cent will survive five years or more, according to the Agency.
Surgical treatments include a Lumpectomy (excision of the tumour and surrounding tissue), mastectomy (removal of diseased breast) or double mastectomy (removal of the two breasts). Double prophylactic mastectomy does not guarantee that the cancer will not recur.
Auxiliary treatment may include radiation, chemotherapy or hormone therapy, said Boughey.
The study, women with a cancer of the breast and a healthy breast removed between 1960 and 1993 were requested 10 years later if they were satisfied with their choice. They were also asked if they would the same decision once more.
After another 10 years, the majority have been surveyed once more. Complete results are available for 269 women.
In the original investigation, 86% said they were satisfied with their decision and 95% said that they would repeat the procedure if they had again. After 20 years, 90% are satisfied with their decision and 97% said they would repeat.
However, approximately 30% in the two periods of time said that they have suffered negative body image and almost a quarter said their sense of femininity and sex have been affected. These effects increase with time, the results showed.
Experts say that the Outlook for women undergoing mastectomy today are much improved in 20 years. "We have procedures that they did not even when women in this study have their surgeries", said Bernik.
For example, breast reconstruction now often accompanies the cancer surgery. The important thing is for women to put an end to the decision, said Bernik.
"We push it [double mastectomy]," she said. Often, a young woman were children, treat them and then decide to have the deleted second chest, she noted.
According to Bernik, approximately 10% of breast cancers are caused by genetic mutations, and women who have family members already diagnosed breast cancer are at higher risk if cancer is genetically influenced.
Other risk factors for breast cancer are age or long exposure to estrogens, which occurs when menstruation begins at an early age and continues beyond 50, said Boughey. Women who give birth to first child later in life are also at higher risk, she noted. Men can also develop breast cancer, but it is rare.
Cancer patients do better these days that even five or ten years earlier, said Boughey.
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