Many women with breast cancer now live for decades after their breast cancer treatment. In view of this, modern breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy for breast cancer aims to reproduce as natural a breast shape as possible. Keeping a natural breast appearance has been shown to be very important to a woman's emotional and psychological recovery. Breast cancer treatment often includes a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, anticancer tablets such as Tamoxifen, and newer targeted drugs such as Herceptin. Radiotherapy is usually given after surgery. However, radiotherapy after mastectomy and breast reconstruction can damage the 'new' breast giving a less good breast shape and appearance in the longer term. Also, if recovery is slow following surgery, the radiotherapy is delayed which may reduce its effectiveness. Changing the order of treatments has been shown to be safe and effective for chemotherapy, Herceptin and anticancer tablets but we have very little information on giving radiotherapy before breast cancer surgery. The investigators want to find out if giving radiotherapy before mastectomy and reconstruction alters surgical complication rates and they want to evaluate the appearance of the reconstructed breast when radiotherapy is given before surgery.
See this in plain English?
AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.
Number of participants with presence of open breast wound
Timeframe: 4 weeks after mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction