Mastectomies–either before or after cancer has been detected–are never 100 percent fail-safe: fragments of breast tissue can be left behind and later become cancerous. But of the 639 women in the study who had healthy breasts removed between 1960 and 1993, only seven developed the disease. Without the surgery, researchers estimated that at least 67 and as many as 90 of the women would have become sick.
Many women overestimate their chance of developing breast cancer. And doctors still consider prophylactic mastectomy a radical option–even for patients who test positive for high-risk genes or have a family history of the disease. The drug tamoxifen, which has been shown to reduce risk by almost 50 percent, is currently the only other preventive treatment. But it can have serious long-term side effects, including endometrial cancer. The new study will help healthy women at serious risk make a more informed choice if they’re considering preemptive therapy–and highlight the need for more research into this deadly disease.
