Exploring quality of life and breast cancer-related lymphedema in pre-surgical breast cancer patients at a tertiary care hospital in South India.

Background: The quality of life (QOL) of Breast cancer is severely affected by the cancer diagnosis and side effects of the therapies. Subclinical lymphedema is also present in breast cancer patients before axillary lymph node dissection. The study objective is to assess the QOL and Breast cancer-related Lymphedema (BCRL) among pre-surgical patients with Breast cancer.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional analytical design was used in the surgery ward of the Tertiary Care Hospital. Convenient sampling techniques were used to collect data from 320 patients admitted for Modified Radical Mastectomy (MRM). A structured questionnaire includes a socio-demographic, clinical profile, and standardized QOL-Breast cancer version (QOL-BC) used to assess the QOL. BCRL was measured by a non-elastic measuring tape. The categorical variables were expressed in frequency and proportion, and continuous variables in mean with standard deviation. All the statistical analysis was 5% level, with a P value of 0.05 was statistically significant.

Results: Among 320 participants, the median age was 52 years, and the majority of them, 111 (34.7%), belonged to the 41 - 50 years. Median BMI was 25.1 kg/m^{2 (}22.6 - 28.07 kg/m²). The mean score of overall QOL was 232.32 ± 29.666. Under the subdomain, the median score of physical well-being was 64.5, psychological well-being was 82, social well-being was 43, and spiritual well-being was 46.50. Two participants (0.62%) with stage III breast cancer had mild edema before surgery.

Conclusions: The distress caused by the disease itself and treatment-related factors is the areas that bring down the QOL in these participants.