Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) following mastectomy with breast reconstruction or without reconstruction: a systematic review

The cornerstone of reconstructive surgery following mastectomy is to restore cosmesis and improve physical and psychological health. Consequently, it has become essential for instruments that measure surgical outcomes to include the direct perspective of patients. Many reviews have failed to show significant improvements in quality of life domains following breast reconstruction compared to mastectomy alone. However, with advances in surgical techniques and patient reported outcome measure (PROM) assessment tools designed precisely for breast reconstruction patients, a modern systematic review is warranted. An electronic literature review was performed using CINAHL, Cochrane Library and Medline (using PubMed) comparing patient reported outcome measures of patients undergoing mastectomy alone versus patients undergoing mastectomy with breast reconstruction. Studies in the English and Portuguese languages since the year 2000 were included. The review was undertaken adhering to PRISMA guidelines with last entry on the 31/5/2018. Full text review yield 42 articles of relevance to the inclusion criteria. The most widely used PROM instruments such as Breast-Q, EORTC-Q30/Q23, Short Form 36, FACT-B and others are explored. The specific difficulties conducting such studies and biases identified are investigated further. Studies comparing mastectomy alone against mastectomy with reconstruction show difficulties forming groups with similar clinical and epidemiological characteristics. There are inherent limitations to performing a randomised controlled trial on this topic, including matching patient groups in terms of age, socioeconomical background and cancer staging, and this affects the results of the PROM instruments. Within these limitations, the literature suggests that PROM support the use of breast reconstruction following mastectomy but care must be made selecting patients. The finding is supported by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines which state that breast reconstruction should be offered to all women undergoing breast cancer surgery.