Quality of life and symptom burden in patients with breast cancer treated with mastectomy and lumpectomy.

Introduction: Mastectomy (MAS) and lumpectomy (LUMP) are the two common local surgical treatments for early breast cancer. There has been a debate whether MAS or LUMP results in better quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this study was to examine the symptom burden (SB) and QOL of both MAS and LUMP patients.

Methods: Patients at the Louise Temerty Breast Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, were approached to complete two self-administered questionnaires, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Score (ESAS) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) cancer edition. Additionally, patient demographics were recorded from medical records. Patients were divided into two cohorts depending on their surgical treatment: MAS and LUMP. The QOL and SB, assessed by FACT-B and ESAS, respectively, of MAS and LUMP patients were compared. The analysis was repeated excluding patients with metastases.

Results: From January to August 2014, 614 MAS and 801 LUMP patients were accrued. The MAS patients reported a lower QOL in all categories, except social well-being. There was however no statistical difference in ESAS scores for MAS and LUMP patients with non-metastatic breast cancer.

Conclusion: This study supports existing literature that SB of MAS and LUMP patients without metastases are similar. QOL of MAS patients including those with metastases was lower than that of LUMP patients.