(HealthDay News) — A decision model shows that women with early breast cancer without a BRCA mutation who undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) have a maximum gain in life expectancy of about 6 months, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons, held from Oct. 6 to 10 in Washington, D.C.
Pamela Rochelle Portschy, M.D., of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues developed a decision-analytic Markov model to assess the effect of CPM on life expectancy in women with early breast cancer without a BRCA mutation.
The researchers found that gains in life expectancy for women undergoing CPM ranged from 0.12 to 0.52 years for stage I breast cancer and 0.08 to 0.31 years for stage II breast cancer. Greater benefit of CPM was observed in younger women and those with stage I and estrogen receptor negative disease.
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“I think this decision model study will provide women who are considering these extensive operations with more accurate information about whether or not CPM is going to improve their survival,” a coauthor said in a statement.
