Highlights
- •Post treatment breast pain or mastalgia is a common complaint.
- •Patients fear that post treatment pain may be a sign of breast cancer recurrence.
- •Post treatment mastalgia, however, is not associated with recurrence.
- •Interval or repeat imaging does not appear necessary and instead patient education and reassurance are important in its management.
Abstract
Background
Post-treatment mastalgia is a common complaint in up to 68% of patients after treatment.
This symptom is worrisome to patients as many believe it is a sign of recurrence.
The current study was performed to evaluate if post-treatment mastalgia is associated
with a second breast cancer diagnosis.
Materials and Methods
Patients included were seen from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2020. All patients
who were treated for breast cancer and then presented with breast pain during follow
up were considered to have post-treatment mastalgia. All patients who were diagnosed
with a second breast cancer but did not experience post-treatment mastalagia were
also evaluated.
Results
1799 patients had a mean age 52.9 years. 36% of patients experienced post-treatment
mastalgia. Of patients who complained of post-treatment mastalgia, 19 were diagnosed
with a chest wall recurrence (CW), ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR), or
contralateral breast cancer (CBC). 17 of the 19 patients had breast pain after the
second diagnosis and treatment were completed. The average duration between their
second diagnosis and initial complaint of breast pain was 6.2 years. The two patients
who complained of breast pain prior to their second diagnosis did not have mastalgia
at the time of their second diagnosis. Local recurrence or contralateral breast cancer
were more common in patients without post treatment mastalgia (10.1% vs 0.3%, p <
0.0001) during follow up.
Conclusion
Post treatment mastalgia is not associated with recurrence. Interval or repeat imaging
does not appear necessary and instead patient education and reassurance are important
in its management.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 13, 2022
Accepted:
December 11,
2022
Received in revised form:
November 14,
2022
Received:
March 30,
2022
Footnotes
The abstract for this study was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2018. December 2018.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
