Advantages of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy include Decreased risk of contralateral breast cancer (especially in women in a family history of breast or ovarian cancer) Improvement in survival in breast cancer patients with an inherited genetic mutation (eg, BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation) and possibly in women diagnosed at age < 50 years Decreased anxiety in some patients Decreased need for cumbersome follow-up imaging Disadvantages of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy include An almost two-fold increase in surgical complication rates Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy is not mandatory for patients with the highest risk of developing cancer in the contralateral breast.