REVIEWS  HEREDITARY GENITAL AND BREAST CANCER 

Minerva Ginecologica 2016 October;68(5):544-7

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Risk-reducing mastectomy

Federica CHIESA ¹, Virgilio S. SACCHINI ^{1, 2, 3} ✉

¹ Breast Center, Brust-Zentrum, Zürich, Switzerland; ² Breast Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA; ³ Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA

Mastectomy rates have significantly increased over the last decades, likely due to the rising trend of risk-reducing mastectomies (RRM) in the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. Growing evidence suggests that aggressive risk-reducing surgical strategies are only justified in high-risk breast cancer situations. Notably, in this selected cohort of women, prophylactic mastectomies offer evident benefit for local and contralateral disease control, and may also provide a survival benefit. Nevertheless, the extent of the increasing frequency of this operation is not explained by the broadening of the medical indications alone. Here we analyze the current evidence regarding RRM, its clinical practice, and possible explanations for the rising phenomenon of aggressive surgical locoregional control strategies.