May 27, 2012 | 1 minute read
I’ve just had the proofs back from the publishers for the paper that I wrote with a Faiza Hassan on the risk of finding a previously unsuspected breast cancer in breast reduction surgery. We analysed nearly 1,400 patients and found a breast cancer rate of 0.65%. These were mainly confined to women who had previously had a breast cancer and all were over 35-years. The bottom line, was that if you are under 30 and you have no family history of breast cancer, there is an incredibly small chance that you would have a hidden breast cancer. It also follows that if you are over 35 and you have a family history of breast cancer, a pre-surgery mammogram is improtant, to rule out anything beofre embarking on surgery.