quality of life after contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in newly diagnosed highrisk breast cancer patients who underwent brca12 gene testing purpose recent studies indicate that highrisk breast cancer patients ie women who carry mutations in brca12 genes who opt for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy cpm have a substantially reduced risk of developing contralateral breast cancer however the immediate and longterm impact of this decision on womens quality of life and psychosocial functioning is largely unknown in this study we compared the impact of brca12 genetic test result and cpm on these outcomes among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who opted for cpm at the time of their definitive surgical treatment versus patients who did notpatients and methods participants were 149 highrisk women who underwent genetic counseling and testing for alterations in the brca12 genes we measured selfreported quality of life cancerspecific distress and genetic testingspecific distress using standardized instruments before receipt of genetic test results and again 1 and 12 months laterresults compared with patients who chose breast conservation or unilateral mastectomy those who chose mastectomy of the affected breast and cpm of the unaffected breast did not report diminished quality of life or elevated distressconclusion with respect to quality of life and distress patients who choose cpm fare as well as those who do not in the first year after surgery