HEALTH: No Proof of Benefit from Contralateral Mastectomy, But Rates Rise Anyway.

The proportion of women with early breast cancer opting for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) almost tripled from 2004 to 2012, despite no changes in the indications for the procedure, data from cancer registries showed.

Overall, the rate of CPM increased from less than 5% of women with early breast cancer in 2004 to 13% to 14% in 2012. Similar increases emerged from analyses of women ≥45 (3.6% to 10.4%) and those who were 20 to 44 at diagnosis (10.5% to 33.3%).

Encompassing 45 states and the District of Columbia, the analysis showed increases in CPM in all states, but the magnitude of increases varied substantially across the states, including one contiguous five-state region that had a combined CPM rate exceeding 42% in younger women during 2010 to 2012, as reported online in JAMA Surgery.

It seems early CPM is becoming the new normal, despite what the story says is a “lack of evidence that CPM improves survival in patients.”