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Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy: Long-Term Consistency of Satisfaction and Adverse Effects and the Significance of Informed Decision-Making, Quality of Life, and Personality Traits
Annals of Surgical Oncology, 10/17/2011
Frost MH et al. – Long–term satisfaction and adverse effects remained remarkably stable. It is important that women fully understand the benefits and adverse effects associated with contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM).
Methods- A previously established cohort of women with unilateral breast cancer who had undergone CPM between 1960 and 1993 were surveyed using study-specific and standardized questionnaires at two follow-up time points.
- The first survey was a mean of 10.7 years and the second survey a mean of 20.2 years after CPM.
- 487 of the 583 women who responded to the first study were alive and resurveyed.
- Data from both surveys were available for 269 women.
- With longer follow-up, there was a small increase in the percentage of women satisfied (90%) and those who would choose CPM again (92%) (4% and 2% increase from first survey, respectively).
- Most adversely affected were body appearance (31%), feelings of femininity (24%), and sexual relationships (23%).
- Ninety-three percent of women felt they had made an informed decision.
- Perception of making an informed choice and current QOL were moderately associated with satisfaction with CPM (r = 0.37 and 0.37, respectively) while associations with trait anxiety and optimism were weak (r = 0.27 and 0.21, respectively).
