Risk-to-Benefit Relationship of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy: The Argument for Bilateral Mastectomies with Immediate Reconstruction.

Background: The increasing trend of women with unilateral breast cancer to electively undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in addition to treatment of the index breast has been controversial. The authors set out to better frame the risks and benefits of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in the treatment of unilateral breast cancer by evaluating outcomes of a large, consecutive cohort of patients.

Methods: An institutional review board-approved review of a single-surgeon (N.