Impact of Radiotherapy on Complications and Patient-Reported Outcomes after Breast Reconstruction

Abstract

Background Patients considering postmastectomy radiation and reconstruction require information regarding expected outcomes to make preference-concordant decisions. Methods A prospective multicenter cohort study of women diagnosed with breast cancer at 11 centers between 2012 and 2015 compared complications and patient-reported outcomes of 622 irradiated and 1625 unirradiated patients who received reconstruction. Patient characteristics and outcomes between irradiated and unirradiated patients were analyzed using ttests for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables. Multivariable mixed-effects regression modelsassessed the impact of reconstruction type and radiotherapy on outcomes after adjusting for relevant covariates. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Autologous reconstruction was more commonly received by irradiated patients (37.9% vs 25.0%, P