According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 1.3 million women every year are diagnosed with breast cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death among women the world over - resulting in almost 465,000 fatal cases each year.

Most of the times, breast cancer patients decide to have both their breasts removed, the affected as well as the healthy one, to avoid the recurrence of the disease in the other breast in future.

Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have identified certain parameters to gauge whether or not preventive surgery, which women mostly undertake for the unaffected breast, would actually be beneficial.

The findings of the study, involving 542 breast cancer patients, helped researchers in identifying the following three factors that make a case for preventive surgery:

- presence of more than one tumor in the affected breast, while initial diagnosis

- spread of the disease from milk-producing glands to surrounding tissues

- high risk assessment score - based on factors like patient's age; age at the time of her first menstrual period; age at first pregnancy; and history of breast cancer in close relatives.

About the risk for cancer in the other breast and its preventive removal, Dr Kelly Hunt - the lead researcher of the study, published in the March 1 issue of the journal Cancer
- said: "Not all patients are equal in that risk. Perhaps we can help patients to really more carefully understand their risk and make decisions in a more informed way."