Prospective Study of Cosmetic Outcome and Quality of Life for Women Undergoing Breast Cancer Surgery

This is a clinical study with the aim to investigate how breast cancer patient's quality of life changes after breast cancer surgery, as well as looking at the cosmetic outcomes for the same patient group. The study is conducted prospectively, with patients being included forward in time when they are diagnosed with breast cancer in Kristianstad hospital, Sweden. The study started in January 2019 and is expected to continue enrollment for two years, with the aim of recruiting 300 patients. The patients fill out a quality of life questionnaire (Breast-Q) at baseline, which is defined as time of diagnosis, and second Breast-Q questionnaire 1-year post surgery. Photos are also taken of the breasts both preoperatively and postoperatively and the photos are assessed by a computer program validated to assess cosmetic outcomes after breast cancer surgery, called BCCT.core, and secondly the cosmetic results of the breasts are evaluated by the surgeon and patient herself on a 10-grade scale. In addition study specific items covering for example psychiatric comorbidity, BMI and smoking are retrieved.

The study hypothesis is that patients undergoing breast cancer surgery overall have a good quality of life 1-year after their diagnosis, especially if they are treated with a surgical approach that takes into account both the best oncological treatment as well as the best surgical technique for cosmetic outcome, so called oncoplastic surgery. The other hypothesis is that cosmetic results will be overall favorable for the group of patients who are operated with breast-conserving techniques, and most favorable in those patients who have undergone oncoplastic surgery. Secondly the study aims to see if there are other patient related variables that affect the quality of life or cosmetic outcome, for example cytostatic treatment, a high body mass index, smoking or psychiatric history prior to diagnosis.