(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Women diagnosed with breast cancer have a greater
risk of developing cancer in their opposite breast. Identifying which women have
the greatest risk of contralateral breast cancer could help patients make more
informed decisions regarding prophylactic mastectomies.
While a fairly drastic measure, some women may choose removal of their
unaffected breast for a variety of reasons, including because their physician
recommended it, fear of another breast cancer diagnosis, desire for cosmetic
symmetry and family history of breast or other cancers. If a physician was able
to assess which patients are at the highest risk of contralateral breast cancer,
many patients could preserve their healthy breast.
Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
looked at 542 patients with breast cancer in one breast and who had a double
mastectomy between 2000 and 2007. Of those patients, 5 percent had contralateral
breast cancer while 15 percent had abnormal cells in their other breast that
could put them at risk for breast cancer development.
Three independent factors were linked with contralateral breast cancer: when
cancer cells had certain histologic invasive characteristics, when cancer was
present in more than one quadrant of the breast, and when the patient had a
five-year Gail risk of 1.67 percent or more. In addition, women diagnosed when
they were over age 50 or who had additional moderate- to high-risk cells in
their affected breast were also likely to have abnormal cells in their other
breast that could turn into cancer.
SOURCE: CANCER, published online January 26, 2009
