THE PREVALENCE OF ARM EDEMA FOLLOWING TREATMENT FOR BREAST-CANCER

The prevalence of chronic arm oedema was determined among all 1249 wom en treated for breast cancer but without tumour recurrence and living and registered in the Worthing District Health Authority area; 1151 wo men (92%) responded to a validated questionnaire. The mean interval si nce treatment was 9.5 years. Of 1077 women treated for unilateral brea st cancer, 302 (28%) reported arm swelling. There was a significant (p =0.01) increase in prevalence with time since treatment in patients wh o received post-operative radiotherapy. Overall, arm oedema was twice as common among women treated by radiotherapy (odds ratio adjusted for type of operation 2.45, 95% CI 1.86-3.27), and among patients treated by mastectomy compared to lumpectomy (odds ratio adjusted for radioth erapy 2.13, 95% CI 1.13-4.43). Arm oedema is thus a common complicatio n of breast cancer treatment, and patients should be alerted to this p ossibility at the time of initial treatment.