Increasingly, younger women with early-stage cancer in only one breast and no genetic risk factors are choosing to have double mastectomies. But there’s little evidence to suggest that removing the healthy breast will prolong their lives.
Now a Duke Cancer Institute study finds it’s not likely to improve their quality of life, either.
The rate at which women with cancer in one breast choose contralateral prophylactic mastectomies has increased six-fold from 1998 to 2011. The Duke study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that removal of both breasts does not markedly improve a woman’s quality of life.
Learn more in the Washington Post.
