Patient opinions on contralateral prophylactic mastectomy: A patient-driven discussion in need of tuning?

Article Figures & Tables

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of participants

Table 2

Decisional parameters surrounding contraleral prophylactic mastectomy

Item	No. (%) of participants
How participant felt when making decision about contraleral prophylactic mastectomy
Unsure about what to do	5 (50)
Worried what could go wrong	4 (40)
Physical signs of stress	4 (40)
Questioning what is important	3 (30)
Distressed/upset	2 (20)
Wavering between choices/changing mind	2 (20)
Factors that made decision difficult
Lacked information about options, benefits, risks	4 (40)
Lacked information on chances of benefits and harms	2 (20)
Felt unsupported	2 (20)
Felt pressure from others	2 (20)
Information overload	1 (10)
Unclear about what was important	1 (10)
Lacked motivation/not feeling ready to make decision	1 (10)
Lacked ability or skill to make decision	1 (10)

Table 3

Participants’ knowledge and expectations regarding benefits and risk of contraleral prophylactic mastectomy

Item	No. (%) of participants
Perceived benefit
Reduced cancer risk	9 (90)
Improved psychologic well-being	9 (90)
Improved symmetry/cosmesis	6 (60)
No more follow-up (imaging, call-backs, procedures)	4 (40)
Improved longevity/survival	3 (30)
Reduced/no change in complication risk/recovery	3 (30)
Perceived risk
Increased complication risk/recovery	6 (60)
Lack of survival advantage	2 (20)

Table 4

Decisional support and resources

Item	No. (%) of participants^*
Methods
Gathered information	8 (80)
From health care providers	5 (50)
From independent research	4 (40)
Information content
Chances of benefits and risks	7 (70)
Options	6 (60)
How others go about deciding	5 (50)
Valuation/personal importance of benefits and risks	4 (40)
Beneficial resources
Information materials	8 (80)
Health condition	8 (80)
Surgical options	8 (80)
Surgical benefits and risks	8 (80)
Probabilities of benefits and risks	8 (80)
Valuation/personal importance of benefits and risks	4 (40)
Guidance in deliberation	3 (30)
Counselling from health care practitioner	7 (70)
Discussion groups of people facing same decision	5 (50)
Format
Booklet/pamphlet	8 (80)
Internet	4 (40)
Video	3 (30)