Table 3.
Annualized incidence of breast cancer-related lymphedema, by study type
| No intervention (background rate) | Monitoring with BIS | Monitoring with circumference | Comparative rate ratio | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Included studies (n) | Incidence (%; 95% CI) | Included studies (n) | Incidence (%; 95% CI) | Rate ratioa | p-value | Included studies (n) | Incidence (%; 95% CI) | Rate ratiob | p-value | BIS vs. circumference | p-value | |
| Overall pooled estimate | 35 | 4·9 (4·3–5·5) | 7 | 1·5 (0·6–2·4) | 0·31 | < 0·001 | 11 | 7·7 (5·6–9·8) | 1·57 | < 0·001 | 0·19 | < 0·001 |
| By follow-up duration | ||||||||||||
| ≤ 2 years | 18 | 10·1 (8·0–12·2) | 5 | 1·9 (0·7–3·2) | 0·19 | < 0·001 | 7 | 9·4 (5·5–13·3) | 0·93 | 0·36 | 0·20 | < 0·001 |
| > 2 years | 17 | 3·4 (2·8–3·9) | 2 | 0·8 (− 0·6–2·2) | 0·24 | < 0·001 | 4 | 6·9 (4·1–9·8) | 2·03 | < 0·001 | 0·12 | < 0·001 |
| By study type | ||||||||||||
| Prospective | 19 | 7·9 (6·1–9·8) | 4 | 2·1 (0·0–4·1) | 0·27 | < 0·001 | 6 | 11·0 (5·8–16·3) | 1·39 | < 0·001 | 0·19 | < 0·001 |
| Randomized clinical trials | 6 | 10·1 (6·1–14·0) | 1 | 0·5 (− 0·2–1·2) | 0·05 | < 0·001 | 3 | 7·1 (0·4–13·8) | 0·70 | 0·04 | 0·07 | < 0·001 |
| Retrospective | 10 | 3·5 (2·7–4·4) | 2 | 1·6 (1·1–2·2) | 0·46 | < 0·001 | 2 | 5·8 (1·5–10·2) | 1·66 | < 0·001 | 0·28 | < 0·001 |
aBIS versus no intervention
bCircumference versus no intervention
BIS Bioimpedance spectroscopy