Quality of life and related risk factors after breast reconstruction in breast cancer patients

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer in women globally, using radical mastectomy as the main clinical treatment. This study aims to investigate the quality of life and related factors in patients after breast reconstruction. Methods: Female patients undergoing breast reconstruction after radical mastectomy between February 20, 2014 and February 20, 2019 in the Department of Tumor or the Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery in the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College and Nanchong Central Hospital were surveyed. The patients' basic information was collected using a questionnaire prepared by the research team, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) questionnaire was used to assess the patients' quality of life. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to explore the factors impacting the change of FACT-B scores one year after surgery. Results: A total of 150 patients were included. 143 of them had complete data, and 7 patients were lost to follow-up. Compared with the preoperative results, the scores of all dimensions of the FACT-B scale and the overall health status of the patients were significantly reduced at 3 months after surgery, which recovered to the preoperative level at 6 months after surgery (P<0.05) , and significantly increased at 12 months after surgery (P<0.05). The results showed that age >= 40 years, menopause, postoperative complications, and endocrine therapy were risk factors for decreased quality of life at 12 months after breast reconstruction. Meanwhile, tumor stage 0 or stage I and immediate breast reconstruction were protective factors for quality of life at 12 months after breast reconstruction (P<0.05). Conclusions: The postoperative quality of life of patients with breast reconstruction is relatively high. Older age, post-menopause, postoperative complications, endocrine therapy, advanced tumor stage, and delayed reconstruction are all risk factors for decreased quality of life of patients. Targeted measures should be taken to improve the postoperative life quality of patients, such as paying more attention to the older or post-menopausal patients , as well as those with postoperative complications, endocrine therapy, high tumor stage, or delayed breast reconstruction.