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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Will removing a noncancerous breast in breast cancer patients reduce the risk of the disease? Little is known about the connection, however a growing number of women choose to have the procedure in hopes of lowering their risk.
A study of New York State data finds that the number of women who are removing a healthy breast after being diagnosed with breast cancer is rising.
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Stephen B. Edge, M.D., FACS, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, led researchers to examine patients who underwent prophylactic mastectomies between the years of 1995 and 2005. The researchers identified 6,275 patients in New York that underwent the procedure and found 81 percent of those women were diagnosed with cancer in one breast prior to the removal of a healthy breast.
Researchers found that the number of procedures more than doubled during the time period. "These data from New York are only data on a large population of women that examine the use of bilateral prophylactic mastectomy," Dr. Edge was quoted as saying. These data demonstrate that prophylactic mastectomy is an uncommon procedure that is performed most commonly on women with personal history of breast cancer. Although the total number of prophylactic mastectomies performed per year was small, it appears that the use of the surgery is increasing."
SOURCE: Cancer, 2009
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