Men with breast cancer prefer double mastectomy as treatment: study

The number of men undergoing contralateral prophylactic mastectomies has nearly doubled from 2004 to 2011, LiveScience reports. In fact, the rate of those who undergo the surgery was 3 percent in 2004, compared to 5.6 in 2011. This shows that more men are opting for the procedure, which involves removing the healthy, unaffected breast following a breast cancer diagnosis on the other.

According to ABC News, a study conducted by Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, revealed that more men afflicted by breast cancer are opting for contralateral prophylactic mastectomies. The study analyzed 6,332 men with breast cancer undergoing surgery, and revealed how the statistics have almost doubled from 2004 to 2011. Jemal and his associates believe that the reason may be because of genetic testing, family history, or fear of the cancer's return.

"[The operation] is only recommended for a small proportion of men," Jemal said. He believes that "It is concerning because there is no really good evidence" that the double mastectomy benefits male breast cancer patients. "I think the increase we see is in the general population is not only high risk people but other women and men are getting the mastectomy," he said.

Jemal added: "The increase in the rate of this costly, serious procedure with no evidence of survival benefit comes, paradoxically, at a time of greater emphasis on quality and value in cancer care."

Dr. Larissa Korde, a breast cancer researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, told NBC News: "I think this is probably a reaction of emotion. What people are experiencing when they go through cancer is not necessarily just 'Am I going to die when I get another cancer?' It's 'I don't want to go through this again'."

Dr. Robert Shenk, a surgical oncologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland told ABC News that men actually have a lower risk of developing breast cancer in the healthy breast. He said: "It doesn’t make sense to me to remove it. You also don’t know if physicians who are used to or recommending prophylactic mastectomies in women are doing the same thing for men."

ABC News further reports that every year, around 2,350 men are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, a stark contrast to 231,840 who are afflicted by the same disease, according to the American Cancer Society. The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is 1 in 1,000 for men, while 1 in 8 for women.