A new study revealed that 58 percent of women who have early stage breast cancer want to remove the other unaffected breast because they thought that it could prevent further spread of the cancer.
Researchers from the Northshore University HealthSystem, led by Dr. Katharine Yao, director of the breast surgical program at the university, surveyed 150 women diagnosed with breast cancer. The survey aims to learn their surgery preference such as contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) or removal of the unaffected breast, lumpectomy or lump removal, and unilateral mastectomy or removal of both affected breasts.
According to the National Cancer Institute, CPM is considered a risk-reducing surgery and does not guarantee cancer prevention. However, the earlier study showed that it could reduce the risk by at least 90 percent. Most women who have strong family history of the disease choose to undergo this surgery.
The participants answered the 55-item questionnaire which aims to determine their knowledge on breast cancer, recurrence and survival, and anxiety levels.
The study showed that 5.6 percent of the participants are not familiar with CPM, while 24 percent know about it but would not undergo such surgery. A majority of the participants (58 percent) admitted that they would want to have their unaffected breast removed after being diagnosed.
However, these women have less knowledge about the effects of the risk-reducing surgery. About 68 percent of them believed that CPM would reduce the risks of recurrence. But these women do not immediately subject themselves to surgery because their partners might disapprove their bodies' alteration.
"These data demonstrate that this complex decision is often the result of higher anxiety levels and worry about recurrence. These are certainly valid concerns, but as oncologists we need to make certain that we are educating each patient about her individual risk for the future," Dr. Julie Margenthaler, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and The American Society of Breast Surgeons, told Reuters Health.
This study is just one of the research projects presented in the 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco.
