Evaluation of the preoperative perception of quality of life and satisfaction of women with breast cancer using the BREAST-Q™ questionnaire. / Evaluación de la percepción preoperatoria de la calidad de vida y satisfacción de la mujer con cáncer de mama mediante el cuestionario BREAST-Q™.

INTRODUCTION: Almost 40% of women who undergo breast surgery are dissatisfied with the decision-making process as well as cosmetic results. Our objective was to demonstrate the usefulness of the BREAST-Q™ preoperative questionnaire to evaluate the satisfaction and health-related quality of life in women with diagnosis of breast cancer prior to surgery, as well as identifying satisfaction profiles. METHODS: Prospective cohort observational study in women with breast cancer, evaluating preoperative quality of life using the BREAST-Q™ questionnaire. Percentile measures for each domain and baseline physical characteristics were assessed for posterior analysis. RESULTS: The average score in the breast satisfaction domain was 58.9±16.9. The average score in the preoperative psychosocial well-being domain was 70.5±16.1. Patients who were offered conservative surgery had a mean physical well-being score of 80.7±18.5, and those who were offered mastectomy had an average score of 79.9±17.7. The sexual well-being average score was 63.2±20.7. No statistically significant differences were found between low-score and high-score groups regarding epidemiological and clinical characteristics CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative evaluation in breast cancer patients provides correct assessment of the effect of surgical treatment on patient satisfaction and quality of life. This information is useful for communicating with patients about their expectations and postoperative results.

Axillary radiotherapy in conservative surgery for early-stage breast cancer (stage I and II). / Radioterapia axilar en la cirugía conservadora del cáncer de mama en estadio temprano (estadio I y II).

INTRODUCTION: Several clinical studies analyze axillary treatment in women with early-stage breast cancer because of changes in the indication for axillary lymph node dissection. The aim of the study is to analyze the impact of axillary radiotherapy in disease-free and overall survival in women with early breast cancer treated with lumpectomy. METHODS: Retrospective study in women with initial stages of breast carcinoma treated by lumpectomy. A comparative analysis of high-risk women with axillary lymph node involvement who received axillary radiotherapy with the group of women with low risk without radiotherapy was performed. Logistic regression was used to determine factors influencing survival and lymphedema onset. RESULTS: A total of 541 women were included in the study: 384 patients (71%) without axillary lymph node involvement and 157 women (29%) with 1-3 axillary lymph node involvement. Patients with axillary radiotherapy had a higher number of metastatic lymph node compared to non-irradiated (1.6±0.7 vs. 1.4±0.6, P=.02). The group of women with axillary lymph node involvement and radiotherapy showed an overall and disease-free survival at 10 years similar to that obtained in patients without irradiation (89.7% and 77.2%, respectively). 3 lymph nodes involved multiplied by more than 7 times the risk of death (HR=7.20; 95% CI: 1.36 to 38.12). The multivariate analysis showed axillary lymph node dissection as the only variable associated with the development of lymphedema. CONCLUSION: The incidence of axillary relapse on stage I and II breast cancer is rare. In these patients axillary radiotherapy does not improve overall survival, but contributes to regional control in those patients with risk factors.

Spanish validation of an instrument to measure the quality of nursing care in hospital emergency units.

The article describes the translation and adaptation to Spanish of the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale (CECSS), an instrument used to measure the quality of care nurses give in emergency units. Bilingual people using a translation-retrotranslation process performed the adaptation. The reliability and validity of content and construction were analyzed. The reliability study showed satisfactory indexes in all cases. Content validity (judgment of expert nurses and patients) obtained a mean item-dimension suitability valuation of 6.1 and item-scale suitability of 5.5. As the Spanish version of the CECSS is comprehensible to patients, and reliability and validity are satisfactory, it provides a useful measure of the quality of nursing care.