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Breast cancer patients are increasingly having preventive surgery to remove the unaffected breast, but a new study suggests it’s not beneficial for the vast majority of women who undergo it.

University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers today are reporting that the records of more than 100,000 patients revealed a survival benefit in 6 percent of those who opted to have a double mastectomy. Women who fell within that 6 percent fit a particular profile that doctors can easily identify before the patient decides on a treatment.

“It’s important for women to understand that, except for one subset of breast cancer patients, they don’t need to do this,” said Dr. Isabelle Bedrosian, a professor of surgical oncology and one of the study’s two lead authors. “Hopefully, it’ll reassure patients wondering if they should.”

The study, published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that a double mastectomy offers a slight benefit only to breast cancer patients 50 and younger whose tumor is estrogen receptor negative and in the early stages. It found that five of 100 such patients having the preventive surgery lived longer.

The study found no benefit among other double mastectomy patients.