When found positive for the breast cancer gene, BRCA, Jessica Queller elected double prophylactic mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer down to about 3%. Her sister, who also tested positive for the gene, followed suit. Their hopes are that this procedure will improve her future plans to raising her own family. Read her remarkable story: http://www.newsweek.com/id/131985?GT1=43... Would you have the courage to do this, or to advise your daughter to do so, if warranted?

FRIDAY, April 11 (HealthDay News) -- A lack of patient-doctor discussion may contribute to socioeconomic, age and race-related disparities in the use of breast reconstruction after mastectomy, says a study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

MONDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Only half the women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer clearly understand the risks and benefits of a mastectomy versus a breast-conserving lumpectomy plus radiation, even after they have one of the procedures, according to a new study.

If the woman is black or Hispanic, the chances are even less likely she has adequate information, say researchers whose results appear in the latest online issue of the journal Health Services Research.

By Kathleen Doheny
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

 

Women diagnosed with breast cancer who have a mastectomy are increasingly choosing to have their other, healthy breast removed as a preventive measure.

The rate of the procedure, called a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, more than doubled from 1998 to 2003, according to a new study.