Breast cancer-related lymphoedema: advances and outstanding issues.

Abstract

Optimal management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL), a common and debilitating complication of surgery and radiotherapy, depends on early detection, personalised risk assessment and proactive intervention. For instance, a recent review advises healthcare professionals to reframe the narrative about the daily-living skin trauma risks away from 'what to avoid' to 'what to do'. Another review recommends daily, or nearly daily, exercise at home to reduce lymphoedema severity. However, several questions await full answers. There is, for instance, no consensus regarding the most appropriate surgical technique for preventing BCRL. This feature summarises some recent papers updating healthcare professionals about BCRL.