Does Doctor's Gender Sway Surgery for Breast Cancer?

When Dr. Todd Tuttle asks his female medical students at the University of Minnesota what they would do if they had breast cancer, he is always surprised by the large number who say they would choose to have both breasts removed, even if they didn't have to.

Now, he's found a similar pattern among a few female surgeons in Minnesota. In a study published this week, he found that women surgeons were much more likely than male surgeons to do double mastectomy procedures on breast cancer patients.

The findings are not conclusive -- only three of the 23 surgeons in the study were women. But they are enough to make Tuttle question whether there is a gender gap among surgeons about an aggressive and controversial surgical procedure that increasing numbers of patients are choosing.

In his study of 571 Minnesota breast cancer patients, the three women surgeons performed double mastectomies -- removal of both breasts -- on nearly half of their patients, compared with one in four for the male surgeons.

"It may be they recommend it more often," said Tuttle, a cancer surgeon and researcher at the University of Minnesota. "Or it may be that patients who want a double mastectomy seek women surgeons."

Researchers have known for some time that a small but growing number of women with breast cancer are choosing double mastectomies even when they have other less radical options, such as a single mastectomy or removal of the cancerous tissue from one breast, called a lumpectomy.