Quality of Life for Women with Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: The Importance of Collaboration between Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and General Surgery Clinics

The aim of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics and quality of life (QOL) of patients with BCRL (breast cancer-related lymphedema).

In this cross-sectional descriptive study, patients' characteristics such as age, body mass index (BMI: kg/m²), history of chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT), hormone replacement therapy (HRT), neoadjuvant therapy (NT), cancer stages, and types of surgery were recorded. Patients were evaluated using the ‘Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire’ (DASH), the ‘Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire’ (LYMQOL-ARM), and a visual analogue scale (VAS).

Atotal of 68 women with the mean age of 52.50±9.33 and BMI 29.240 ± 5.05 kg/m² were recruited after breast cancer surgery in this study: thirty-three patients (48.5%) in Stage 0; 24 (35.3%) in Stage 1; 10 (14.7%) in Stage 2; and 1 (1.5%) in Stage 3. No statistically significant difference was found in the QOL according to treatments received after the diagnosis of breast cancer surgery, RT(except the appearance domain of QOL), CT, HRT, or NT. In patients who had received axillary dissection in combination with RT, a statistically significant association was observed between QOL related to body image and symptoms (p=0.009 and p=0.017, respectively). A statistically significant difference was found only in body image and clinical symptom domains according to the lymphedema stage (p=0.027 and p=0.002, respectively). It was observed that as shoulder pain (VAS) and disability (DASH) scores increased, scores of all domains of QOLincreased except the overall domain in QOL(p<0.05).

It was observed that clinical symptoms and body image parameters in QOLwere associated with the lymphedema stage and the number of lymph nodes dissected. It was concluded that axillary dissection with axillary RT and RT alone after breast cancer surgery is associated with body image. Our study revealed that body image perception is related to the quality of life in patients with BCRL. Optimal management of the negative effects of self-reported lymphedema evaluated in the latency phase on quality of life requires coordination between Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and General Surgery Clinics.