A new study released that focused on women in New York State diagnosed with breast cancer has found that there are a rising number of women opting to remove a healthy breast when the other is found to be cancerous. Even though there is no proof of increasing survival rate after removing healthy breast along with cancerous one.

The procedure, known as a prophylactic mastectomy, removes the healthy breast as well as the diseased one, most often followed by reconstructive plastic surgery. The practice seems a little drastic, especially in the light of the advent of a great many advances in breast sparing surgical techniques, but for women at high risk, those with a strong family history of the disease, it can seem like the best insurance against the disease recurring.

The researchers involved in the new study, who were led by Stephen B. Edge, M.D., FACS, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY utilized data culled from mandated statewide discharge data that was gathered between 1995 and 2005. From the data they established that during that decade long period 6,275 women underwent prophylactic mastectomies. Of those women eighty one percent had only been diagnosed with cancer in a single breast, and nineteen percent of the women did not have   any personal family history of the disease.

By following the data chronologically Dr Edge and his colleagues were able to see an increase in the number of prophylactic mastectomies performed in New York State. The occurrence of the practice almost doubled over the study period.

The study is the first of its’ kind, as according to Dr Edge only the New York database he used had enough data contained in it to make a study of the frequency with which bilateral prophylactic mastectomy is used . “Although the total number of prophylactic mastectomies performed per year was small, it appears that the use of the surgery is increasing” Dr Edge says in his report.

Before undergoing a prophylactic mastectomy he advises that surgeons must ensure that the patient receives adequate counseling about the risks and benefits of the procedure over other techniques before any surgery is performed.

The issue of prophylactic mastectomy received some widespread media attention in the US last year when well known actress Christina Applegate, who was only 36 at the time, revealed that upon being diagnosed with breast cancer in a single breast had opted for the procedure. Her mother had battle breast cancer a decade earlier and she told reporters that they both had been identified with a genetic fault that may lead to breast cancer.