A prophylactic mastectomy, often called a preventative mastectomy, is when a disease-free breast is removed, explains Dr. Harness. Women choose this because they don?t want to deal with breast cancer in the other breast. It also helps with symmetry of the breasts. Learn more below.
Jay K. Harness, MD: Prophylactic mastectomy that means the removal of the breast that is basically disease-free, in other words it does not have a cancer on it and more and more women are actually choosing prophylactic or preventative mastectomy because frankly they do not want to ever deal with breast cancer again.? Now one of the things that I constantly talk about is that with any mastectomy, no breast surgeon on the planet can say that 1000% of all breast tissue is removed.? At the microscopic level tiny little areas of breast cancer can certainly be left behind.? Obviously we do not do that intentionally.? There are a couple of concepts here.? One is these are typically women in their late 40s or early 50s, say that hey I never want to go there again.
They may have actually chosen a mastectomy or usually have chosen a mastectomy on the primary side and they just do not want to deal with the other side, sometimes quite honestly can help us with symmetry between the two sides by doing the prophylactic mastectomy on the other side.? What I am pleased about is the advent of nipple sparing mastectomy is one of the real ways to go in preventative prophylactic mastectomies where we are saving all of the skin, the nipple areolar area, hiding the incisions here in the inframammary fold and in the axilla, the armpit area, and getting a really terrific cosmetic outcome.? Now with nipple sparing mastectomy or any mastectomy for that matter there is a loss of sensation that is a one thing that is real downside to some mastectomies.? So are more people choosing prophylactic mastectomy, the answer is yes.
I generally do not volunteer it unless I know the patient is BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene positive or unless there are some other significant overriding reasons why I would suggest a prophylactic mastectomy, almost always it is coming from the patient to me, it will be covered by your insurance and we want to discuss the options here of the kind of reconstruction you want or quite honestly there are some women who have prophylactic mastectomy and a standard mastectomy on the cancer side going to choose no reconstruction, that is the kind of individual choice that we will be talking about.
Dr. Jay K. Harness is a board certified surgeon currently treating patients at St. Joesph Hospital in Orange, CA. Dr. Harness specializes in complete breast health, breast cancer surgery, oncoplastic reconstruction, genetic screening, management of breast health issues, risk assessment and counseling. Dr. Harness is the medical director for Breast Cancer Answers.com, and guides this first ever social media show?s information by drawing on his former leadership experience as the President of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and Breast Surgery International. Dr. Harness graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1969 and spent time early on in his career at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
**** This information should not be relied upon as a substitute for personal medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Use the information provided on this site solely at your own risk. ?If you have any concerns about your health, please consult with a physician.
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