PCL - Breast Cancer

At Monash, we've something called Patient Centered Learning (PCL), which is very much juz a mutation of the Problem Based Learning (PBL) used widely today. So basically, every week we get together in our little groups with a tutor to discuss a problem.

The topic this week was Hereditary Breast Cancer and we were given a short story to read, about a certain female (Jenny) whose mom and aunt had the said condition and who was paranoid about getting it too. Then we began discussing the treatment options. Apparently, the main form of treatment is mastectomy, or removal of the breast. After this procedure, the patient has 90% less chance of having the cancer recur. This is where it starts to get interesting.

The tutor suggested that Jenny should have her breasts removed in order to dramatically reduce the risk of getting breast cancer. WHAT THE HELL??? Aren't people afraid of getting breast cancer because they stand to lose their breasts? And now we're talking about losing their breast to prevent cancer! Oh well, being shocked frequently is part and parcel of the journey thru med school.