Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and quality of life: answering the unanswered questions?

Rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) among women with early-stage breast cancer continue to rise in the United States, despite a lack of evidence for any survival benefit associated with this surgery (1,2). While many studies have robustly evaluated medical outcomes, including survival and risk of contralateral breast cancer, less is known about the psychosocial impact of CPM in breast cancer patients who undergo this procedure. In a recent publication, Hwang and colleagues (3) sought to examine whether quality of life (QOL), as measured by the BREAST-Q (4), a validated breast surgery specific patient reported outcome instrument, differed between women who chose CPM vs. those who underwent unilateral mastectomy