Retrospective study of long-term risks of supplemental surgery after risk-reducing mastectomy in genetically high-risk women

Risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) helps prevent breast cancer in high-risk women but also carries a risk of unanticipated supplemental surgeries. A retrospective study at McGill University Medical Center (Montreal, Canada) found that among women with a confirmed germline pathogenic variant in a breast cancer susceptibility gene (e.g. BRCA1/2, PALB2) who underwent bilateral or contralateral RRM, unanticipated supplemental surgeries were required in 40% of patients, and in nearly one-third of patients without early postoperative complications.