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Thousands of women are needlessly having their breasts removed to prevent cancer even though it may do more harm than good, a study suggests.

Every year around 4,000 women with breast cancer in Britain opt for a double mastectomy in the belief that it will prevent cancer appearing in the healthy breast. But a study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, U.S., shows that the majority of women would never have developed cancer in the healthy tissue.

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Unnecessary surgery leaves women open to complications, the researchers warn, as well as psychological problems, such as depression.

The U.S. researchers studied more than 500,000 breast cancer patients for eight and a half years to see whether the disease came back.

Patients and caregivers should weigh the expected benefits with the potential risks of CPM, including prolonged recovery time, increased risk of operative complications, cost, the possible need for repeat surgery, and effects on self-image.

They found that although there had been a rise in women opting for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) — the surgical removal of a breast unaffected by cancer — there had been no change in survival rates.