Reply: Complications in unilateral breast cancer patients who undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy versus unilateral mastectomy

We thank Dr Chen for his insightful comments. Certainly, the technique of propensity score matching could be used to assess whether contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) is an independent predictor of increased complications, taking into account other factors that are different between this cohort of patients and their counterparts undergoing a unilateral mastectomy (UM). We chose not to do this because CPM was not associated with a difference in complication rate compared with patients undergoing UM; therefore, it would be unlikely that an effect would be muted by significant confounding (in opposite directions) by factors that are different between CPM and UM patients.
Source: Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Source Type: research