Thursday 16 May 2013

Arm lymphoedema after breast cancer

Arm lymphoedema after breast cancer. The lancet oncology, May 2013, Vol. 14(6), p.442-43

Mortimer, P.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(13)70097-4/fulltext?_eventId=login&rss=yes

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Breast-cancer-related lymphoedema is a substantial problem in women after they have undergone breast cancer treatment. Despite the introduction of breast-conserving surgery and minimal lymphatic intervention (eg, sentinel-lymph-node biopsy [SLNB]), incidence rates remain disappointingly high. In The Lancet Oncology, Tracey DiSipio and colleagues report the findings of their systematic review and meta-analysis in which they shown that roughly one in five women with breast cancer will develop arm lymphoedema. The incidence was four times higher in women undergoing axillary lymph-node dissection compared with those who received sentinel-lymph-node biopsy.