External validation of a 5-factor risk model for breast cancer-related lymphedema

Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a common, harmful side effect of breast cancer treatment. A prognostic study at the University of Toronto (Canada) was carried out to validate a previously published risk model for BCRL based on five factors (age, body mass index, breast density, nodal burden, and use of axillary lymph node dissection. The study included 101 women with predominantly early-stage breast cancer. The model performed wll in predicting 2-year lymphedema-free survival. The model had sensitivity 0.83 (95% CI 0.52-0.98), specificity 0.89 (0.80-0.94), and accuracy 0.88 (0.80-0.94) for predicting BCRL. The authors conclude that these findings validat the performance of the 5-factor risk model for prediction of 2-year lymphedema-free survival.