Breast Edema Compression Vest

In this pilot study, a maximum of 40 patients with symptomatic breast edema after surgery and/or radiotherapy for breast cancer are offered treatment with a compression vest. These patients will be followed for 6 months. Recruitment will continue until 20 active vest users are participating.

Primary endpoint is the course of patient reported pain over a 6 month period. Secondary endpoints are the course of degree of breast edema and quality of life over a 6 month period.

Patients who are wearing the vest may experience relief of breast edema related symptoms. In terms of burden, they might experience a tight feeling on the skin while wearing the vest, which could also be the case when treated with compression therapy and taping by a physical therapist. This tight feeling can be overcome by changing the vest to a larger size. All patients will fill out questionnaires upon inclusion, at 2 weeks, and 1, 3 and 6 months. This will take approximately 10-15 minutes per follow-up moment. Patients will have to visit the hospital at baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months after they started wearing the vest (i.e. 25 minute consult with physical examination, photo documentation of the breast and short basic follow-up questions), and it is expected that additional measurements for fitting a new compression vest will need to be taken 2-5 times during participation in the study. Those fitting measurements will be performed at a location as desired by the patient (e.g. UMC Utrecht or at patients' home).

Inclusion criteria

• Females, aged 18 years and older.
• Patient treated with surgery and/or radiotherapy for breast cancer, with symptomatic breast edema (e.g. pain).
• Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain score of 3 or more.

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to understand the Dutch language.
• Indicated to undergo radiation treatment of the breast/chestwall within the next 6 months.
• Cardiac complaints.
• Pacemaker.
• Port-a-cath.
• Thrombosis of the arm.
• Pulmonary embolism.
• Pulmonary disease.
• Pregnancy.
• Non-breast cancer related lymph edema.
• Clinical depression or anxiety disorder.