Collaborative Projects

'Long-term safety of nipple sparing mastectomy in gene positive women' is a collaborative study led by the Jewish General Hospital, with SPHERE participating as a sub-site where a retrospective chart review will be used to analyze breast cancer incidence in women who have undergone risk-reducing mastectomy after being identified as carriers of BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, TP53, CDH1, or PTEN. The study focuses on women who undergo genetic testing, discover they carry a genetic variant linked to breast cancer, and choose to have a risk-reducing mastectomy before developing the disease. These women can undergo one of three types of mastectomy: total mastectomy, skin-sparing mastectomy, or nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM). While NSM typically provides better cosmetic outcomes for immediate reconstruction, concerns exist about its effectiveness in risk reduction due to the potential for residual breast tissue.