Does Prosthesis-Based Breast Reconstruction Affect the Clinical Outcome of Postmastectomy Radiotherapy?

In the last 5 decades, there has been significant advancement of breast reconstruction and postmastectomy radiotherapy for breast cancer care. There has been concern that breast reconstruction may adversely affect the efficacy of postmastectomy radiotherapy. This, however, has not been proven by clear clinical evidence.

By comparing the locoregional recurrence rates and overall survival after postmastectomy radiotherapy between those with and without prosthesis-based breast reconstruction, a retrospective cohort study of the breast cancer patients was done. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to control the confounding factors.

From January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2011, 1015 patients receiving postmastectomy radiotherapy were identified. Among them, 111 patients had prosthesis-based breast reconstruction, and the other 904 did not have breast reconstruction. Thirty-four of 904 (3.8%) patients in the nonreconstructed group and 4 of 111 (3.6%) patients in the reconstructed group developed locoregional recurrence. Multivariable survival analysis found no significant difference both in locoregional recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, 0.852; P = 0.771) and in overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.317; P = 0.246) between the nonreconstructed group and reconstructed group.

Although postmastectomy radiotherapy has been shown to affect the surgical and cosmetic outcomes of breast reconstruction, prosthesis-based breast reconstruction does not seem to have significant adverse impacts on the locoregional recurrence-free survival and overall survival of postmastectomy radiotherapy.