Oncoplastic surgery boosts quality of life in breast cancer patients

In women with breast cancer, oncoplastic surgery improves quality of life and is associated with high patient satisfaction, reports a new study.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 127 stage I–II breast cancer patients who underwent a variety of oncoplastic operations between April 2012 and December 2018. The postoperative BREAST-Q inventory was used to assess patient-reported outcomes.

The most common procedure was bilateral reduction mammoplasty (RM; n=37, 29 percent), followed by nipple-sparing surgery (NSM) with deep inferior epigastric perforator flap reconstruction (DIEP; n=32, 25 percent), round block mammoplasty (RB; n=30, 24 percent), hemibatwing technique (HBW; n=14, 11 percent), and V-mammoplasty (VM; n=14, 11 percent).

Chest physical well-being scores were highest in VM patients, with a median of 91.00 followed by NSM/DIEP (85.00), RB (81.00), HBW (79.00), and RM (71.00). Scores were statistically comparable across all groups. However, all surgical groups showed lower median physical well-being scores relative to normative control data drawn from women with no history of breast cancer and surgery.

Psychosocial wellbeing scores were likewise high, with a median score of 100.00 in VM and NSM/DIEP recipients. Median scores in the RB, RM, and HBW groups were 87.0, 87.0, and 85.00, respectively. Of note, all operative groups had better psychosocial wellbeing than normative controls, who achieved a median score of 71.

Similarly, breast satisfaction and sexual wellbeing scores were high, ranging from 72.00–82.00 and 62.00–100.00, respectively. In particular, sexual wellbeing was better in operative patients than in normative controls.