Comparing costs of standard Breast-Conserving Surgery to Oncoplastic Breast-Conserving Surgery and Mastectomy with Immediate two-stage Implant-Based Breast Reconstruction

BACKGROUND

Conventional breast-conserving surgery (C-BCS) has equal oncological outcomes and superior cosmetic and patient-reported outcomes compared to mastectomy with immediate two-stage implant-based breast reconstruction (M-IBR). Oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery (OP-BCS) is increasingly being used, as it often has better cosmetic results and it enables larger tumour resection. However, OP-BCS and M-IBR compared to C-BCS lengthens operative time and might lead to more complications and consequently to additional costs. Therefore, this study aimed to compare costs and complication rates of C-BCS, OP-BCS and M-IBR.

METHODS

This single-centre, retrospective cohort study, calculated costs for all patients who had undergone breast cancer surgery between January 2014 and December 2016. Patient-, tumour- and surgery-related data of C-BCS, OP-BCS and M-IBR patients were retrieved by medical record review. Treatment costs were calculated using hospital financial data. Differences in costs and complications were analysed.

RESULTS

A total of 220 patients were included: 74 patients in the C-BCS, 78 in the OP-BCS and 68 in the M-IBR group. From most expensive to least expensive, differences in total costs were found between C-BCS vs. OP-BCS and C-BCS vs. M-IBR (p=<0.01 and p=0.04, respectively). Costs of OP-BCS and M-IBR were comparable. Complication rates were 5.5% for C-BCS, followed by 17% for OP-BCS, and 34% for M-IBR (p<0.01).

CONCLUSION

Considering total treatment costs, OP-BCS was financially non-inferior to M-IBR, whereas complication rates were higher following M-IBR. Therefore, when considering other benefits of OP-BCS, such as higher patient-reported outcomes and similar oncological outcomes, a shift from M-IBR to BCS using oncoplastic techniques seems justified.

Cost-utility analysis of four common surgical treatment pathways for breast cancer

BACKGROUND

The aim was to evaluate the cost-utility of four common surgical treatment pathways for breast cancer: mastectomy, breast-conserving therapy (BCT), implant breast reconstruction (BR) and autologous-BR.

METHODS

Patient-level healthcare consumption data and results of a large quality of life (QoL) study from five Dutch hospitals were combined. The cost-effectiveness was assessed in terms of incremental costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) over a 10-year follow-up period. Costs were assessed from a healthcare provider perspective.

RESULTS

BCT resulted in comparable QoL with lower costs compared to implant-BR and autologous-BR and showed better QoL with higher costs than mastectomy (€17,246/QALY). QoL outcomes and costs of especially autologous-BR were affected by the relatively high occurrence of complications. If reconstruction following mastectomy was performed, implant-BR was more cost-effective than autologous-BR.

CONCLUSION

The occurrence of complications had a substantial effect on costs and QoL outcomes of different surgical pathways for breast cancer. When this was taken into account, BCT was most the cost-effective treatment. Even with higher costs and a higher risk of complications, implant-BR and autologous-BR remained cost-effective over mastectomy. This pleas for adapting surgical pathways to individual patient preferences in the trade-off between the risks of complications and expected outcomes.

"The validity of the EQ-5D-5L in measuring quality of life benefits of breast reconstruction"

BACKGROUND

The EuroQol EQ-5D-5L instrument is the most widely used quality of life (QoL) measure in health economic evaluations. It is unclear whether such a generic instrument is valid enough to estimate the benefits of breast reconstruction (BR), given the specific changes observed in QoL after BR. Hence, we aimed to evaluate the validity of the EQ-5D-5L in patients who had undergone postmastectomy BR.

METHODS

In a 10-year cross-sectional cohort study, 463 mastectomy patients completed an online survey: 202 patients with autologous-BR (A-BR), 103 with implant-based-BR (I-BR), and 158 without BR (MAS). The results were used to evaluate the psychometric performance of the EQ-5D-5L with respect to the ceiling effect and to known-group, convergent, and discriminant validity, by comparing it with the Breast-Q, the cancer-specific (EORTC-QLQ-C30), and breast cancer-specific (EORTC-QLQ-BR23) questionnaires.

RESULTS

The EQ-5D-5L was able to discriminate between patients with and without complications, MAS with or without BR and MAS versus the general population. It was, however, not able to discriminate between A-BR vs. I-BR as well as BR vs. general population. It is not clear whether this was due to the insensitivity of the instrument, insufficient sample sizes, or because there were no actual differences in QoL between these groups. Good convergent and discriminant validity of both the EQ-5D-5L and its individual dimensions were demonstrated. Additional support for the instrument's validity was revealed by moderate correlations between the generic EQ-5D-5L and specific QoL aspects of BR such as sexuality and body image.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study support the validity of the EQ-5D-5L as an outcome measure in health economic evaluations of BR.

Burden of Keloid Disease: A Cross-sectional Health-related Quality of Life Assessment

Keloid scars may be painful, itch severely and be cosmetically disturbing. The burden of keloid disease, however, has not yet been determined. This study evaluated the association of keloid disease with health-related quality of life (HRQL) and identified indicators of burden using a cross-sectional survey study, with one disease-specific HRQL measure (Skindex-29) and 2 generic HRQL measures (SF-36 and EQ-5D-5L). A total of 106 keloid patients with no other skin diseases participated in the study. Having keloid disease was associated with a considerable impairment of emotional wellbeing, with most impairment on the emotional and mental HRQL. Pain and itch were the strongest indicators of HRQL impairment in keloid patients. Having painful or itchy keloids was related to low mental and emotional HRQL, implying that patients with keloids require access to effective treatment aimed at alleviating physical symptoms.

A Systematic Review on the Prevalence, Etiology, and Pathophysiology of Intrinsic Pain in Dermal Scar Tissue

BACKGROUND

Scars can cause pain, even without symptoms of underlying nerve damage. A lack of knowledge on intrinsic scar pain hampers effective treatment of these complaints.

OBJECTIVE

Aggregate current knowledge on the prevalence, etiology, and pathophysiology of intrinsic pain in dermal scars.

STUDY DESIGN

Systematic review.

SETTING

University Medical Center.

METHODS

We searched the Embase, Medline, Cochrane central, CINAHL, Web-of-Science, and Pubmed databases with search terms: scar, skin, pain, and etiology/pathology, adding all synonyms of these terms. Relevant papers were selected and analyzed by 3 reviewers.

RESULTS

Intrinsic pain in scars has a low prevalence. However, pathologic scars and burns regularly cause pain of high intensity. The etiology is multifactorial, the extent of trauma was an important predicting factor. Nerve fiber density did not explain the intrinsic pain when pan-neuronal markers were used, while a correlation with an increased number of C-fiber subtypes seems plausible. Nerve growth factor (that stimulate these C-fibers) plays an important role in wound healing. Thereby, it also sensitizes neurons and promotes inflammation, releasing even more neurotrophic factors. Central sensitization causes a long-lasting effect even after wounds are healed. Furthermore, the opioid-system, that influences inflammation and healing and possible systemic sensory alterations after injury, is discussed.

LIMITATIONS

Liberal selection criteria challenged the systematic selection of papers.

CONCLUSIONS

Burn and pathologic scars often lead to high intensity pain symptoms. This pain has many characteristics of neuropathic pain that could be caused by an imbalance of C-fibers subtypes. The scar tissue itself may alter the nerve fiber distribution; the imbalance results in ongoing neuro-inflammation and pain symptoms. Key words: Systematic review, scar, pain, epidermal innervation, prevalence, neuro inflammatory response, peptidergic fibers.

The effect of immediate breast reconstruction on the timing of adjuvant chemotherapy: a systematic review

Adjuvant chemotherapy is often needed to achieve adequate breast cancer control. The increasing popularity of immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) raises concerns that this procedure may delay the time to adjuvant chemotherapy (TTC), which may negatively impact oncological outcome. The current systematic review aims to investigate this effect. During October 2014, a systematic search for clinical studies was performed in six databases with keywords related to breast reconstruction and chemotherapy. Eligible studies met the following inclusion criteria: (1) research population consisted of women receiving therapeutic mastectomy, (2) comparison of IBR with mastectomy only groups, (3) TTC was clearly presented and mentioned as outcome measure, and (4) original studies only (e.g., cohort study, randomized controlled trial, case-control). Fourteen studies were included, representing 5270 patients who had received adjuvant chemotherapy, of whom 1942 had undergone IBR and 3328 mastectomy only. One study found a significantly shorter mean TTC of 12.6 days after IBR, four studies found a significant delay after IBR averaging 6.6-16.8 days, seven studies found no significant difference in TTC between IBR and mastectomy only, and two studies did not perform statistical analyses for comparison. In studies that measured TTC from surgery, mean TTC varied from 29 to 61 days for IBR and from 21 to 60 days for mastectomy only. This systematic review of the current literature showed that IBR does not necessarily delay the start of adjuvant chemotherapy to a clinically relevant extent, suggesting that in general IBR is a valid option for non-metastatic breast cancer patients.