Most women who have double mastectomy don't need it

About 70 percent of women who have both breasts removed following a breast cancer diagnosis do so despite a very low risk of facing cancer in the healthy breast, new research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center finds. “Women appear to be using worry over cancer recurrence to choose contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. This does not make sense, because having a non-affected breast removed will not reduce the risk of recurrence in the affected breast,” says Sarah Hawley, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School. Hawley will present the findings Nov. 30 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Quality Care Symposium. Read more here.