Sask. researchers evaluate effects of breast reconstruction surgery on cancer survivors

WATCH: Researchers in Saskatchewan are studying the impacts of reconstruction surgery for breast cancer patients, and how it impacts their strength and mobility later in life.

Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan are looking at the aftermath of reconstruction surgery on breast cancer patients, and how the procedures may have an impact on functional mobility later in life.

It’s estimated that one in eight women will be affected by breast cancer in their lives. If caught early, it can have a survival rate up to 90 per cent.

But the effects of breast reconstruction surgery can affect women’s day to day activities.

“About 70 per cent of those women who have had mastectomies will have some kind of secondary shoulder injury or some kind of recurring shoulder symptoms in the future,” said Sarah Fitzgerald, PhD student.

Researchers began studying the effects of different types of breast reconstruction surgeries, but the project was interrupted by the pandemic.

“We still got some valuable information from that study,” said Angelica Lang, assistant professor and researcher at the University of Saskatchewan. “The problem is that we had to group all of the reconstruction surgery types together.”

While they were able to determine patients had different functional patterns and some had mobility limitations after a mastectomy or reconstruction surgery.

Now with federal funding, Lang and her team want to evaluate the effects of three main types of reconstruction surgeries.

“The sub-pectoral implant, which is putting an implant underneath your chest muscle,” said Lang.

“The DIEP, which is taking tissue from your abdomen including the blood supply and the nerves and making a breast from that, or the latissimus dorsi, which is taking tissue from the back.”

Using 3D motion capture software, participants have markers fitted to them and are taken through “work related activities and functional protocol” to collect data on body movements.

“Basically to get the shoulder through its full range of motion,” said Kenzie Friesen, postdoctoral fellow. “And then we’re able to see how might they move differently from someone else who hasn’t had breast cancer or had a different type of surgery, or has a different level of pain rating?”

With new funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research and the Canadian Cancer Society, Lang and her team are hoping to recruit around 100 more participants to collect functional movement data.

She hopes the information gathered from the study will help inform patients’ decisions before treatment or surgery.

“One of our goals is what we call improved, shared decision making,” said Lang. “When a patient goes to their surgeons or in their colleges and wants to get reconstruction, there’s a lot of things to consider by this whole group of people. Which surgery they should get, and sometimes they have a choice, sometimes they do not, depending on what it is. So having more information about what’s going to happen after, what’s important to you after, can help you either make that decision, or if you don’t have an option, what it’s going to mean for your life afterwards.”

Participants don’t have to come from Saskatoon or Saskatchewan to be eligible.

“We’re really looking to recruit anyone between the age of 18 and 70 who’s had a mastectomy and a reconstructive surgery, or no reconstruction surgery,” said Fitzgerald.

Participants will be compensated for their time which takes about 2 hours at the University of Saskatchewan.

For more information, visit the researchers’ website.