Title: The Incidence of Arm Edema in Women With Breast Cancer Randomized on the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Study B-04 to Radical Mastectomy Versus Total Mastectomy and Radiotherapy Versus Total Mastectomy Alone
Abstract: <h3>Purpose</h3> To determine the incidence and factors associated with the development of arm edema in women who participated in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) study B-04. <h3>Methods and Materials</h3> Between 1971 and 1974, the NSABP protocol B-04 randomized 1,665 eligible patients with resectable breast cancer to either (<i>1</i>) the Halstead-type radical mastectomy; (<i>2</i>) total mastectomy and radiotherapy to the chest wall, axilla, supraclavicular region, and internal mammary nodes if by clinical examination axillary nodes were involved by tumor; and (<i>3</i>) for patients with a clinically uninvolved axilla, a third arm, total mastectomy alone. Measurements of the ipsilateral and contralateral arm circumferences were to be performed every 3 months. <h3>Results</h3> There was at least one recorded measurement of arm circumferences for 1,457 patients (87.5% of eligible patients). There were 674 women (46.3%) who experienced arm edema at some point during the period of follow-up until February 1976. For radical mastectomy patients, total mastectomy and radiotherapy patients, and total mastectomy patients alone, arm edema was recorded at least once in 58.1%, 38.2%, and 39.1% of patients, respectively <i>(p</i> < .001) and at last recorded measurement in 30.7%, 14.8%, and 15.5%, respectively (<i>p</i> = <.001). Increasing body mass index (BMI) also showed a statistically significant correlation with arm edema at any time (<i>p</i> = .001) and at last assessment (<i>p</i> = .005). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Patients who undergo mastectomy, including those whose treatment plans do not include axillary dissection or postoperative radiotherapy, suffer an appreciable incidence of arm edema.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 95
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