Double mastectomies not beneficial for breast cancer patients: study

Women fighting cancer in one breast do not benefit from having both removed, according to new research that found long-term survival was equivalent after targeted surgery plus radiation.

A growing number of women have begun choosing the most radical surgical option - the double mastectomy, to remove all breast tissue - after a diagnosis, even when cancerous tissue was found only in one breast.

But the researchers aimed to determine whether evidence showed double mastectomies led to longer lives.

It was the first study to directly compare survival rates between the three main surgical interventions used in breast cancer: a single or a double mastectomy, or a lumpectomy to remove cancerous tissue, followed by radiation therapy.

The study found that in 2011, just over 12 per cent of patients diagnosed with a breast tumour opted for a double mastectomy, compared to 2 per cent in 1998.

However, "we can now say that the average breast cancer patient who has bilateral mastectomy will have no better survival than the average patient who has lumpectomy plus radiation", said the lead author, Stanford medical professor Allison Kurian.