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A cancer diagnosis can create many more questions than it answers: Will it spread? Will it become life-threatening? What's the best treatment?

The number of women having both breasts removed after a tumor is found in one increased by 150 percent over a five-year period despite a lack of evidence showing that double mastectomies increase survival in most women, researchers reported Monday. Current guidelines for treatment of a localized breast cancer call only for removal of the tumor and not for a mastectomy much less a double mastectomy. But an increasing number of women, particularly young white women, are pushing for the more aggressive procedure for reasons that are not totally clear, the researchers said.

Putting on weight throughout adulthood can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer in middle age, a research has shown. Obesity was already known to be associated with post-menopausal breast cancer. The new findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, link the risk of developing the disease after the menopause with weight gain from the age of 18 onwards. The pattern was seen in women who did not take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is known to increase the likelihood of developing breast cancer.