Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 13;85(5):1513-1517.
doi: 10.1097/MS9.0000000000000607. eCollection 2023 May.

Quality of life of breast cancer survivors: a comparison of breast conserving surgery versus total mastectomy with and without immediate reconstruction: a prospective cohort study

Lubna M Vohra  1 , Saad Malik Javed  2 , Dua Jabeen  3 , Syeda Sakina Abidi  1 , Muhammad Umair Tahseen  4
Affiliations

Quality of life of breast cancer survivors: a comparison of breast conserving surgery versus total mastectomy with and without immediate reconstruction: a prospective cohort study

Lubna M Vohra et al. Ann Med Surg (Lond). .

Abstract

Quality of life after breast cancer surgery is frequently ignored during and after treatment in many cancer survivors. To enhance this aspect of patient's life should be the primary goal of every cancer treatment. Therefore, the present study aimed to highlight the quality of life and patients' satisfaction with their breast cosmesis following breast conserving surgery (BCS), total mastectomy with and without reconstruction.

Material and methods: Data were collected prospectively from cancer patients who had undergone breast surgery at our institution from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2021. The validated Breast-Q questionnaires were utilized for conducting patient interviews and mean scores between three cohorts were compared using one-way ANOVA test / Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results: Overall, 210 patients were recruited in which 70 patients (33.3%) had undergone BCS, 71 patients (33.8%) had total mastectomy only and 69 (32.9%) patients had total mastectomy with reconstruction. Physical well-being scores were consistent between the three groups while patients operated with total mastectomy with reconstructive surgery scored higher in sexual and psychosocial health measures as compared to patients of total mastectomy. However, BCS patients were the most satisfied with their cosmetic outcome following patients of total mastectomy with reconstruction and without reconstruction.

Conclusion: Reconstruction postmastectomy has a positive impact on sexual and psychosocial well-being of survivors; however, those who had breast conservation were more satisfied with cosmetic outcome post-surgery as compared with mastectomy with or without reconstruction.

Keywords: breast; breast conserving surgery (BCS); breast reconstruction; mastectomy; quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of Physical Well-being Breast-Q scores among types of breast surgery.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of Sexual Well-being Breast-Q scores among types of breast surgery.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of Psychosocial Well-being Breast-Q scores among types of breast surgery.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of satisfaction Breast-Q scores among types of breast surgery.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Balasubramanian R, Rolph R, Morgan C, et al. . Genetics of breast cancer: management strategies and risk-reducing surgery. Br J Hosp Med (Lond) 2019;80:720–725. - PubMed
    1. International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. Accessed 9 June 2022. https://www.iarc.fr/infographics/breast-cancer-awareness-month-2019-ineq...
    1. Gulzar F, Akhtar MS, Sadiq R, et al. . Identifying the reasons for delayed presentation of Pakistani breast cancer patients at a tertiary care hospital. Cancer Manag Res 2019;11:1087–1096. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Veronesi U, Cascinelli N, Mariani L, et al. . Twenty-year follow-up of a randomized study comparing breast-conserving surgery with radical mastectomy for early breast cancer. N Engl J Med 2002;347:1227–1232. - PubMed
    1. Kurtz JM, Jacquemier J, Amalric R, et al. . Breast-conserving therapy for macroscopically multiple cancers. Ann Surg 1990;212:38–44. - PMC - PubMed