Breast Cancer Prevention

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 14, 1999 / 9:23 AM EST / CBS

How far would you go to prevent breast cancer? Some healthy women with a family history of breast cancer have chosen to have their breasts removed surgically in the hopes of preventing the disease later in life. A new Mayo Clinic study published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine has found this elective procedure significantly lowered their risk. CBS This Morning Health Contributor Dr. Bernadine Healy puts it in perspective:

"This is a study that went back over 40 years and came up with a number: 90 percent. Roughly 640 women had prophylactic mastectomies. Seventy of them might have been expected to get cancer. Only seven did. That's where the 90 percent comes in. A lot of mastectomies had to be done to get to the result."

That does not mean that no woman should consider such a radical move, Dr. Healy says. "They should consider all new developments. It is drastic. You could argue that the real risks are having breasts and being a woman. Every woman could have her breasts removed and she could reduce her chance by 90 percent. The question is, when is the risk so high you should embark on this thing that is drastic?"

There are other preventive options, notes Healy. Chief among them are early detection: "Surveillance, mammography, seeing your doctor regularly. High-risk women...probably have to have mammograms more frequently."

In addition, there are preventive measures that weren't available 40 years ago. Under the category of chemo-prevention is tamoxifen, a drug that can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in high-risk women by 50 percent.

Healy points out that there is not enough information to say how these options compare with protectively removing both breasts. "There has never been a study that compared prophylactic mastectomy to chemo-prevention."

Finally, Healy notes that even having your breasts removed does not guarantee you will never develop breast cancer. Breast tissue is distributed over a fairly wide area of the chest wall.