What are your thoughts concerning elective surgery, requested by persons whose family history shows high cancer incidence, to prevent it in advance? Removal of women's breasts has been done often for that purpose. An imponderable here might be where the idea originated in the first place: medical community or individual. imp
Elective Surgery
- Thread starter imp
- Start date
QuickSilver
SF VIP
- Location
- Midwest
If your odds of developing cancer in a specific site were 50% or greater.. would you wait?
Butterfly
SF VIP
- Location
- Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
Nope, don't think I would.
AZ Jim
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- SURPRISE, ARIZONA
When it comes to sharing the life of a loved one or their breasts, it's not a hard choice.
Lon
Well-known Member
- Location
- Central California
Elective Surgery should be considered on a case by case basis along with second and even third case opinion.
AprilSun
Senior Member
I know someone who has a family history of breast cancer. Her mother had it and died, and several generations back also including aunts, etc. She had both breast removed as a preventive measure and I have to say, I don't blame her. I wouldn't want that hanging over my head either.
Then, everyone seems in favor. I have to accept majority opinion. I have misgivings about all of this, though. QS, you mention "odds". The odds are unfortunately determined by those benefitting from the "yes" decision, not the patient, whose opinion is not relevant. imp
Butterfly
SF VIP
- Location
- Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
Poor wording on my part. What I meant was, the Professionals study and know the "odds" statistically for a given case, but that person is not aware of all the calculating and posturing that went into determining those odds, thus his/her position is not relevant to those odds. Whew! imp
d0ug
Member
These people want to prevent breast cancer selenium reduces the chance of breast cancer by 80 % and burn meat increases the chance of cancer by 428% So take selenium and don't eat burnt meat. This idea of removing breast as a preventative would be like shooting your self to prevent dieing. There is lots of people who have this genetic pattern who never get breast cancer.