title: Iranian women's attitude toward prophylactic mastectomy for breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Science has already proved that some breast cancer genes are inherited from parents. It is generally believed that the probability of cancer diagnosis in carriers of those genes is considerably higher than the normal population. It is in the same direction that modern medicine has introduced prophylactic mastectomy - one of the key preventive methods which is the focus of the present research. Nevertheless, whether women that have been diagnosed with breast cancer would take this approach depends on their local culture and their set of beliefs. In this regard, the present research was meant to evaluate the acceptability rate of prophylactic mastectomy among women in Iran after they are informed of the positive genetic test results.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six hundred and five healthy women, who had no history of breast cancer, were selected by nonprobability sampling method. A predesigned questionnaire was filled out by the interviewer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed that about 15% of respondents were willing to pick the prophylactic mastectomy in case they are identified as carriers of breast cancer genes. Twenty-two percent of participants with positive family history was agreed with prophylactic mastectomy while in the negative family history group it was about 14%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preventive mastectomy has a higher rate of acceptability among women who have had a family history of breast cancer. Therefore, it may be concluded that raising public awareness about the advantages of prophylactic mastectomy could help better address breast cancer in Iran.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR; Tasnim Biotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Keivan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Majidzadeh-A
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Farahmand
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali-Akbar
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Rezvan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Esmaeili
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Malihe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salehi
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Group, Breast Cancer Research Center, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Habibi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D011292:Premedication; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult