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Dr. Michael Brennan notes in the 1999 article: "Complexity of Pain in Post Breast
Cancer Lymphedema":
individuals can experience pain as a result of infection, surgical trauma to nerves or phantom breast pain, deep vein thrombosis, arthritis and joint pain. He suggests that acute infection and venous thrombosis be treated before using pressure based forms of therapy.
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Lymphedema can occur as a result of cancer or after surgery or radiation treatment for cancer, particularly when lymph nodes are removed or damaged. Sometimes lymphedema doesn't show up until years after cancer treatment has taken place.
- In 1997 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the U.S. warned that breast
cancer survivors are at risk of getting lymphedema "if they have received radiation therapy or had node dissection.... A 52% incidence of lymphedema among patients undergoing radiation after radical mastectomy has been reported, compared to a 25% incidence in groups treated without radiation."
- Other cancer survivors at risk for lymphedema include those who have
undergone surgery and/or radiation treatment for malignant melanoma of the
upper or lower extremities, prostate cancer, gynecologic cancers, ovarian,
testicular/prostate cancers, colorectal, pancreatic, or liver cancers, according to the NCI.
- It is unlikely that the rate of lymphedema in individuals treated for breast cancer will be reduced any time soon. Recent research on the use of adjuvant use of radiation in the treatment of premenopausal women with breast cancer - in combination with chemotherapy - have indicated a reduction in reoccurance of cancer from 30% to 10% (Canadian study: Ragaz J, Jackson SM, Le N, et al. Adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy in node-positive premenopausal women with breast cancer N. Engl J Med 1997: 337:956-62; Danish study: Overgaard M, Hansen PS, Overgaard, J, et al. Postoperative radiotherapy on high-risk premenopausal women with breast cancer who receive adjuvant chemotherapy, N. Engl J Med 1997; 337:949-55)
- In the Canadian study, Ragaz J, Jackson SM, Le N, et al. noted that arm edema was three times as likely to develop in patients who received irridation along with chemotherapy than those who received chemotherapy alone. The same study reported a 10% rate of arm edema in the group of patients treated with both radiation and chemotherapy.
- While many of the conventional treatments for lymphedema are used in these situations, there are specialized preventative measures and supports that are unique to lymphedema after cancer treatment. Prevention of infection in the areas in which lymph nodes have been removed is crucial.
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Compression prophylaxis may increase the potential for flight-associated lymphoedema after breast cancer treatment
Click here to read about the Cross Cancer Institute study about manual lymph drainage (MLD) and compression bandaging for breast cancer related lymphedema
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Lymphovenous Canada: Cancer and Lymphedema![[horizontal rule]](hr_rdbk.gif){kind=small}
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