Effects of regular bra-wearing on acute skin toxicity in breast-conserving radiotherapy women

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of regular bra-wearing during radiotherapy on acute skin toxicity (AST) and the Quality of Life (QOL) in women with breast conserving therapy (BCT). Methods: A prospective study of 99 patients with any stage of breast cancer who underwent BCT.  Patients were instructed to wear an appropriate bra then they were classified by total hours of wearing bra during the radiotherapy treatment course into Non-Bra-Wearing (NBW) (0 hr.) and Bra-Wearing (BW) groups (>0 hr.).  The AST was assessed weekly and one week after treatment end by CTCAE v 4.03.  The QOL was assessed before and one week after treatment end by The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer (FACT-B) Thai version 4. Results: 66 patients were in the BW group and 33 patients were in the NBW group.  The rate of ≥ G2 AST was lower in the BW group compared to the NBW group (16.7% vs. 54.5%, p<0.001, respectively).  In the multivariate analysis, the statistically significant factors that were associated with increased the risk of ≥ G2 AST were NBW (0 hr.) (p<0.001), high body mass index (p=0.001), and high percentage of maximum dose (p=0.043). There was no differences in all parts of after treatment FACT-B between the two groups (118.4 vs. 114.7, p=0.256, respectively). Conclusions: Regular BW during radiotherapy is not associated with increased risk of ≥ G2 acute skin toxicity and does not affect the QOL compared to NBW.