Ihor PukhnatyyIn 2016, there will be an estimated 249,260 new cases of breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
The number of mastectomies is skyrocketing — even though the breast cancer rate has stayed the same.
Between 2005 and 2013, mastectomies increased 36%, according to a government study released Monday. Surgeries went from 66 to 90 per 100,000 women. And the number of double mastectomies tripled, from 9.1 to 29.7 per 100,000 women.
Some women having the radical surgery do not have breast cancer, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.
Brawley called the hike in mastectomies “an overwhelming problem.” More and more women, he explained, “have the genetic test and are concerned they are going to get” cancer.
When women are told they have a gene mutation, increasing their risks of breast cancer, many opt for surgery, Brawley said.
“There is a group of women who really should have the option of getting a double mastectomy and it should be their decision as to whether or not they get it,” Brawley said.
Actress and activist Angelina Jolie provided the most famous case of genetic testing that resulted in a double mastectomy. She had the operation back in May 2013. Jolie carries the genetic mutation of the BRCA1 gene — and had an 87% risk of breast cancer.
Being so open about her surgery influenced patients to consider double mastectomies, said Dr. Margaret Mary Sacco, a breast oncologist at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, N.J.
“The stress of each biopsy can make the patient very nervous regarding her risk of other areas of disease in each breast,” Sacco said. “The diagnosis of breast cancer is emotional for these young women — and they don’t want to have to go through this experience again in their lifetime.”
ollega/Getty Images/iStockphotoMany more women are opting for mastectomies over lumpectomies and chemo, radiation and drug therapy, a new government study has found.
Women are choosing mastectomies because breast reconstructive surgery has improved and genetic tests are much more popular, Brawley said.
Despite the increases in surgery, the breast cancer rate for 2008 through 2012 is 123.1 per 100,000 women. It peaked in 1999 at 141.5 per 100,000 women, Brawley said.
The new report by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality also reveals that the average age of women who underwent a double mastectomy was 51. That’s about a decade younger than those having a unilateral mastectomy.
“The surprising part was we moved from doing breast conserving surgery” to radical mastectomies and still the rates of cancer stayed the same, according to Dr. Claudia A. Steiner, an internist who wrote the study.
For years, when possible, women had lumpectomies and then radiation or chemo and drugs. But now the trend has moved from saving the breast toward the more radical surgery.
The study’s other major finding: the rate of bilateral outpatient mastectomies — women who have both breasts removed and left the hospital that same day — increased more than fivefold between 2005 and 2013.
By 2013, almost half of all mastectomies were done as outpatient procedures. The new report was based on findings from 13 states which reported hospital procedures, Steiner said.
If any changes were to be made because of these findings, Brawley said he hoped hospitals would “tighten things up. No bilateral mastectomies unless a woman has gone through genetic counseling to discuss the pros and cons of genetic testing. Women should be able to decide yes or no.”
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