A recent study published in the Journal of the American Cancer Society shows that few doctors talk about every option they have to women diagnosed with breast cancers. It seems that only a third of women diagnosed with breast cancer receive information about all removing breast cancer procedures and reconstruction options.

After diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer women face tough decisions. They have to choose between cutting out the tumor and prolonged therapies with radiation or major surgery and remove the breast.

The study surveyed almost 1,200 early stage breast cancer patients in Detroit and Los Angeles. The two procedures, lumpectomy and mastectomy have the same high five-year survival rates.

Dr. Amy Alderman, lead author of the reconstruction study in cancer, and a plastic surgeon at the University of Michigan Medical Center tried to determine if surgeon preferences, rather than patient preferences, are driving the procedure choosing.

Figures showed that women who were told about the mastectomy and the breast reconstruction were four times more likely to choose mastectomy over lumpectomy.

There is also the possibility of having immediate reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy. It’s one longer operation and it saves a period of four weeks of recovery necessary after every breast surgery. Statistically, this procedure is chosen by 8 percent of diagnosed women in Hawaii, 11 percent in Iowa, and 22 percent in New Mexico.