Recent progress in the treatment and prevention of cancer-related lymphedema - Shaitelman - 2014 - CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians - Wiley Online Library

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Lymphedema Beyond Patients With Breast Cancer

Patients with other solid tumors requiring treatment that adversely affects lymphatic function are also at significant risk of developing lymphedema. Unfortunately, relatively few studies have investigated lymphedema in these patient populations. For example, a recent systematic review identified only 47 studies that assessed non-breast cancer-related lymphedema, and most of those studies were retrospective.[50] The following subsections provide an overview of the current body of published literature regarding the incidence of lymphedema as a result of the treatment of nonbreast malignancies......

 One recent systematic review highlighted several areas in the delivery and cost of lymphedema treatment that might benefit from changes in health policy. Stout et al[239] identified 8 articles about health care delivery models and 6 articles about economic and cost analyses. They found that although evidence-based care for the diagnosis and treatment of lymphedema is limited, much of the burden to facilitate diagnosis and referral for effective care is placed on the patient. The authors also found that, compared with patients who do not have lymphedema, patients with lymphedema have significantly higher hospitalization rates, higher rates of medical services use, lower QOL, and significantly higher indirect costs. However, the study had a low level of evidence and yielded only speculative findings.