Although rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and bilateral mastectomy are increasing among women with unilateral sporadic breast cancer, a new study reports that despite the procedure diminishing the risk of contralateral breast cancer, the patients experienced mortality rates similar to those of patients treated with lumpectomy or unilateral mastectomy.

The primary goal of the study, appearing in JAMA Oncology (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2024.2212), was to determine the 20-year cumulative risk of breast cancer mortality among women with stage 0–III unilateral breast cancer divided by each patient’s initial surgical procedures.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Seema A. Khan, MD, Bluhm Family Professor of Cancer Research at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, and Masha Kocherginsky, PhD, professor of biostatistics and director of the Quantitative Data Sciences Core at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine, wrote that although contralateral breast cancer is the most frequent second malignant tumor among women who have experienced a diagnosis of primary breast cancer, it is less frequent and less ominous than recurrence of the initial cancer. “Nevertheless,” they wrote, “for many patients with newly diagnosed unilateral breast cancer, it can be a prominent source of worry as they navigate their treatment decisions. This worry is accentuated among young patients and those with early-stage disease.”

尽管单侧散发性乳腺癌女性的对侧预防性乳房切除术和双侧乳房切除术的发生率正在增加，但一项新的研究报告称，尽管该手术降低了对侧乳腺癌的风险，但患者的死亡率与接受肿块切除术或单侧乳房切除术治疗的患者相似。

在与该研究一起发表的社论中，伊利诺伊州芝加哥西北大学范伯格医学院 Bluhm Family 癌症研究教授 Seema A. Khan 医学博士和西北医学 Robert H. Lurie 综合癌症中心生物统计学教授兼定量数据科学核心主任 Masha Kocherginsky 博士写道，尽管对侧乳腺癌是经历过原发性乳腺癌的诊断，与初始癌症的复发相比，它的频率和不祥性较低。“尽管如此，”他们写道，“对于许多新诊断的单侧乳腺癌患者来说，这可能是他们做出治疗决定时的一个突出担忧来源。这种担忧在年轻患者和早期疾病患者中更加严重。