Investigation of the Association Between Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema and the Side Effects of Taxane-Based Chemotherapy Using Indocyanine Green Lymphography

Background: Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a common complication. Docetaxel (DOC) and paclitaxel (PTX) have been used in taxane-based chemotherapy for breast cancer and to induce fluid retention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between lymphatic functionality and the side effects of taxane-based chemotherapy using indocyanine green (ICG) lymphography.Methods and Results: One hundred and eighty breast cancer cases who underwent full-dose taxane-based chemotherapy (DOC or PTX) and complained of upper extremity edema were enrolled in this study. BCRL was diagnosed exclusively on the basis of ICG lymphography results. The characteristics (age, body mass index, laterality, surgery type, regional lymph node irradiation, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy type) of patients diagnosed with BCRL (+) and BCRL (-; fluid retention only) were compared. The side effects were compared in eight categories (neutropenia, skin toxicity, nail changes, myalgia/arthralgia, peripheral neuropathy, stomatitis, dysgeusia, and digestive disease). BCRL (+) consisted of 116 patients and BCRL (-) consisted of 64 patients. BCRL (+) had significantly higher rates of axillary lymph node dissection (98.3%), lymph node irradiation (68.1%), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (14.7%), and DOC (62.9%) than BCRL (-) patients (56.3%, 20.3%, 3.1%, and 34.4%, respectively; p = 0.002 for neoadjuvant rate, p < 0.001 for the other rates). BCRL (+) patients had significantly higher rates of peripheral neuropathy (60.3%) than BCRL (-) patients (40.6%; p = 0.01).Conclusions: The occurrence rate of BCRL increased for the patients with peripheral neuropathy induced by taxane-based chemotherapy. This implies that peripheral neuropathy can induce BCRL.