Double mastectomy offers no survival benefit for women with breast cancer
Research we're watching
- Reviewed by Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing; Contributor
Women diagnosed with cancer in one breast sometimes choose to have both breasts removed. But an analysis published online July 25, 2024, by JAMA Oncology suggests that this step doesn't make a difference in their odds of dying from breast cancer over the next two decades.
Researchers examined data from more than 661,000 American women (average age 59) who were all diagnosed with cancer confined to one breast between 2000 and 2019. The malignancies ranged from the earliest stage of breast cancer, called ductal carcinoma in situ, to stage 3 invasive cancers. Participants were split into three groups: those who underwent lumpectomy; those who had only the affected breast removed, and those who decided on double mastectomy.
Researchers tracked participants' outcomes and used a scientific calculation to estimate their survival 20 years after diagnosis by their type of surgery. The analysis suggested that deaths from breast cancer were similar among all groups, ranging from 8.5% to 9%. Only about 7% of women who had breast-sparing surgery went on to develop cancer in the other breast, which didn't affect their overall survival odds over the following two decades. But the study results may not apply to women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene variants, which dramatically increase their cancer risk, the study authors said. (The researchers didn't know which of the women in the study may have carried these genes.) For those women, a double mastectomy may be prudent.
Image: © Uma Shankar sharma/Getty Images
About the Author
Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
About the Reviewer
Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing; Contributor
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