Clinical outcome of reconstruction with tissue expanders for patients with breast cancer and mastectomy.

Background: Because the number of patients with breast cancer who have reconstruction after mastectomy is increasing, we analyzed the outcomes of reconstruction with tissue expanders (TEs).

Patients And Methods: From 2004 to 2009, 133 patients with unilateral primary breast cancer who required mastectomy concurrent with reconstruction using TEs (TE group) and 308 patients with breast cancer who underwent mastectomy without reconstruction (MT group) were examined.

Results: The median follow-up period was 47 months versus 44 months (TE group vs. MT group, respectively). The median age was 46 years in the TE group and 58 years in the MT group (P < .0001). The rate of hormone receptor positivity in the TE group was significantly higher than in the MT group (P = .0123). The incidence of local recurrence, time to detection of local recurrence, and size of tumor in local recurrence in the TE group and the MT group were 3.8% versus 1.6% (P = .1560), 17.2 months versus 12.4 months (P = .9166), and 1.9 cm versus 2.4 cm (P = .6742), respectively. In the TE versus the MT groups, relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) at 45 months were 89.0% versus 87.9% (P = .8706) and 93.9% versus 94.2% (P = .9947), respectively. The incidence of infection was significantly higher in the TE group than in the MT group-14.3 % versus 2.9%, respectively (P < .0001).

Conclusion: Compared with mastectomy alone, immediate reconstruction with TEs did not impair prognosis or contribute to a delay in detection of local recurrence, although the incidence of surgical site infection in the TE group was significantly higher than in the MT group.