Preventive mastectomy: Alice Detollenaere recounts the stages of her breast removal

Alice Detollenaere testifies through a video

Alice Detollenaere, the companion of Camille Lacourt, ex-professional swimmer, has published a video in which she reveals the pre and post-operative stages of her preventive mastectomy. The objective of his testimony is to share his experience, to answer the questions posed by his followers and to avoid making preventive mastectomy a taboo subject. Indeed, the lingerie model made the decision to have her second breast, not sick, removed, in order to prevent a potential recurrence of her breast cancer.

As Professor Lantieri, plastic and aesthetic surgeon at the European Georges-Pompidou Hospital in Paris, explains to us, “preventive mastectomy can concern healthy people […] but who are more at risk”. In Alice Detollenaere’s case, she was 32 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. On January 8, 2020, she then had her left breast removed, the one affected by cancer cells. For her, the preventive mastectomy of her other breast is a matured and considered decision.

Indeed, Professor Laurent Lantieri specifies that the removal of a breast in prevention can concern “women who carry a gene called BRCA1, BRCA2 or other rarer genes, and who present a modification and which we know significantly increases the risk for these women: more than 70% risk of developing breast cancer an aggressive form or more 10% for ovarian cancers.” Alice Detollenaere’s cancer is genetic, she carries the CHEK2 gene, which increases the risk of recurrence and a more severe form of cancer.

Preventive mastectomy, an ablation offered to certain patients

According to the Professor, preventive mastectomy is “the only preventive measure that can be considered” for patients at risk of developing breast cancer. In effect, “the cancer could appear between examinations and be dazzling, or detected early but the disease would already be established”. And to add that “Be that as it may, it is an approach that is offered to the patient who will be the only one able to choose.”

Indeed, as evidenced by the companion of Camille Lecourt, it is legitimate to ask certain questions before undergoing this surgery: “Do I want to keep my second breast? We still come to remove a healthy part of the body and we suffer from it”. Mastectomy is not trivial, “since it’s weeks of pain and months of rehabilitation”, says Alice Detollenaere on one of her social networks on Sunday March 27.

The young woman was able to have a reconstruction of the breast just after the ablation. This is possible according to Professor Lantieri, who specifies that “We operate and reconstruct the breasts at the same time. The mammary gland is removed, then prostheses are placed if the patient wishes. We can also proceed to a reconstruction by flaps, by taking tissues and fat elsewhere on the patient’s body, in the area of ​​the belly in particular”.

She knew how to show courage and willpower by making a difficult choice. She announced that she was much better, “I regained the mobility of my body, my arms so it’s cool. I go back to work. Almost everything has disappeared at the level of the hematomas and the natural curve begins to come“.