{"id":617804,"date":"2026-08-03T08:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/617804\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T08:17:12","slug":"study-identifies-critical-gaps-in-cancer-risk-assessment-for-transgender-mastectomy-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/617804\/","title":{"rendered":"Study identifies critical gaps in cancer risk assessment for transgender mastectomy patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers have identified critical barriers preventing transgender patients from receiving breast\/chest cancer risk assessments before gender-affirming mastectomy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals experience significant healthcare disparities across the oncology spectrum of care.\u00a0Systemic barriers, past harmful healthcare experiences and sociopolitical climate, and other impediments to accessing health care among others, combine to influence these disparities.<\/p>\n

TGD individuals undergoing gender-affirming mastectomy (\u2018top surgery\u2019) face unique challenges related to breast cancer risk assessment and screening.<\/p>\n

Currently, a patient can undergo top surgery without understanding how that procedure will affect their lifelong breast and chest cancer risk \u2013 and critically, without knowing if they carry predispositions that could fundamentally reshape their surgical decisions.<\/p>\n

A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine has identified critical barriers that influence healthcare professionals\u2019 integration of cancer risk evaluation, within the context of gender-affirming mastectomy and pre-surgical planning.<\/p>\n

They include clear institutional accountability, harmonised evidence-based guidelines, standardised care pathways and embedded genetic counselling in multidisciplinary gender-affirming care teams.<\/p>\n

These findings mirror what patients reported in a previous\u00a0companion study<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 that they lack clear information before and after surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person \u2013 transgender or cisgender \u2013 deserves clear information about their cancer risk and access to prevention. As it stands, trans people are diagnosed with cancer at later, more dangerous, stages than cisgender people,\u201d explains corresponding author Kim Zayhowski, MS, CGC, genetic counsellor and assistant professor of medical sciences & education at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re calling on healthcare institutions and organisations to move beyond reliance on individual provider commitment and invest in the institutional infrastructure necessary to guarantee that trans patients receive comprehensive cancer risk information to make truly informed decisions about their care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers conducted two parallel qualitative studies.<\/p>\n

In the previous study, they interviewed 16 transgender patients about their experiences with breast\/chest cancer risk assessment and top surgery.<\/p>\n

In the current study, they interviewed 20 healthcare professionals \u2013 primary care physicians, genetic counsellors, oncologists and plastic surgeons \u2013 about current practices and barriers to breast\/chest cancer risk assessments for these patients.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, this study showed that the problem is that healthcare institutions are not built to serve this population.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany healthcare professionals caring for transgender patients want to help, but there is currently no standardised conversation about breast\/chest cancer risk (e.g. what screening looks like after surgery or whether they should consider having more tissue removed based on a genetic or familial risk for cancer),\u201d adds Zayhowski.<\/p>\n

To help patients deal with specific barriers to breast\/chest cancer risk assessment in transgender care that have been identified, the team of researchers is in the process of developing\u00a0CHESTcare<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Cancer &\u00a0Hereditary Risk\u00a0Education &\u00a0Support for\u00a0Transgender and nonbinary individuals \u2013 an online toolkit that integrates cancer and hereditary risk education with support for informed decision-making about breast\/chest cancer screening in the context of gender-affirming care.<\/p>\n

The toolkit includes resources for both patients and providers.<\/p>\n

These findings appear online in the journal\u00a0Breast Cancer Research and Treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Funding for this project was provided by the National Society of Genetic Counsellors Cancer Special Interest Group.<\/p>\n

This article has been republished from the\u00a0following\u00a0materials<\/a>.\u00a0Material may have been edited for length and house style. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our dedicated breast cancer news round-up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have identified critical barriers preventing transgender patients from receiving breast\/chest cancer risk assessments before gender-affirming mastectomy. Transgender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[13479,18,135,19,17,87051],"class_list":["post-617804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-disparities","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mastectomy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117030594129502566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}