Use of immediate breast reconstruction and choice for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy

Rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) have been increasing nationally. The goal of this study was to evaluate recent trends in rates of CPM and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR).

After institutional review board approval, we evaluated all surgical procedures for women with newly diagnosed unilateral stages 0-III breast cancer from January 2009 to December 2014. Patients opting for therapeutic mastectomy were classified as either unilateral mastectomy or bilateral mastectomy, if CPM was performed, and according to whether or not they underwent IBR. Analysis was performed using trend tests for univariate associations and both binary and multinomial logistic regression for multivariate analysis.

There were 3,195 women who underwent surgery for breast cancer--51% lumpectomy, 49% therapeutic mastectomy. Of the 1,571 patients undergoing therapeutic mastectomy, 829 (53%) underwent bilateral mastectomy. The rates of therapeutic mastectomy did not change over the study period (P = .92), but the use of IBR among patients undergoing therapeutic mastectomy increased from 37% in 2009 to 68% in 2014 (P < .0001). The use of bilateral mastectomy with IBR increased from 26% in 2009 to 46% in 2014 (P < .0001), whereas conversely the use of bilateral mastectomy without IBR decreased from 22% to 12% (P < .0001). IBR was associated with bilateral mastectomy; 69% of patients opting for IBR also underwent bilateral mastectomy compared with 38% choosing bilateral mastectomy in the group without IBR (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95% CI, 2.1-3.5; P < .0001).

Over recent years, rates of bilateral mastectomy have remained high. The use of IBR increased substantially for women undergoing therapeutic mastectomy and women undergoing IBR were significantly more likely to opt for bilateral mastectomy. The availability of IBR may influence patients' decisions to pursue bilateral mastectomy.