More male breast cancer patients opt for double mastectomies

 

When actress Angelina Jolie announced that she had a preventative double mastectomy, she “inspired countless women,” according to E! Online. Now, doctors are reporting that men are also increasingly undergoing the procedure, and the trend has them concerned.

New research, published in Wednesday’s edition of JAMA Surgery, examined 6,332 men who had breast cancer and were undergoing surgery and discovered that the number of male patients having both affected and unaffected breast tissue removed had nearly doubled—from 3.0 percent in 2004-2005 to 5.6 percent in 2010-2011.

According to ABC News and The Washington Post, the statistics mirror those reported recently in a study which found that the number of female breast cancer patients undergoing contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) increased from 4.5 percent in 2003 to 11 percent in 2011, and that those trends were especially true in younger, white, privately insured women.

‘No evidence’ to support double mastectomies in males

Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study, told ABC News he was uncertain why there was such a dramatic increase in CPM among men. He added that the findings were “concerning” because “there is no really good evidence” to indicate that undergoing double mastectomies is beneficial to men.

For some women with the BRCA gene mutation, which makes them predisposed to contracting breast cancer, removal of the breasts prophylactically is recommended, Jamal explained. Males that have the BRCA 2 gene, however, have just a seven percent chance of developing cancer in their lifetimes, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims.

“I think the increase we see is in the general population is not only high risk people but other women and men are getting the mastectomy,” said Jemal said. He added that the increase may be related to genetic testing, a family history of the disease, or fear than the cancer may return.

Jemal and his colleagues argue that healthcare providers should be aware that the trend to have CPM procedures on unaffected breast tissue is not limited to women, explaining to the Post that doctors should discuss all of the potential benefits, risks, and costs of the surgery with their male patients in order to make sure that they make informed decisions about their care.

“The increase in the rate of this costly, serious procedure with no evidence of survival benefit comes, paradoxically, at a time of greater emphasis on quality and value in cancer care,” he told the newspaper.

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