Support needs and acceptability of psychological and peer consultation: attitudes of 108 women who had undergone or were considering prophylactic mastectomy.

Objective: Prophylactic mastectomy (PM) offers 90% or greater reduction in risk of breast cancer to women at increased hereditary risk. Nonetheless, acceptance in North America is low (0-27%) and 25-50% of women electing surgery report psychological distress and/or difficulty adapting following PM. Most women also report reduced cancer worry postoperatively.