Mastectomies do reduce cancer risk: study
Women genetically prone to breast cancer who remove their breasts as a precaution reduce their chances of developing the disease by 90 per cent, the first comprehensive study of the procedure revealed today.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in the US followed the long-term health of 643 women who chose the radical procedure between 1960 and 1993 and compared them with their sisters, who had a similar genetic makeup.
They found a dual mastectomy cuts the risk of breast cancer by 90 per cent and the risk of death from the disease by 94 per cent.
The survey, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first rigorous evaluation of the procedure even though dual mastectomies have been recommended in some medical circles as a preventative option for women at high risk of the disease since the 1960s.
One Australian woman in eleven will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. The disease is passed down through families but only 5 per cent of breast cancers can be traced to genetic causes, according to the NSW Cancer Institute.
The option of removing both healthy breasts is usually only offered to women with a proven genetic predisposition to cancer, such as those carrying the BRCA1 gene, which puts them at a greatly increased risk.