How do you assess and counsel women with chronic post-lumpectomy or mastectomy pain?

Post-surgical breast pain is not uncommon. Estimates suggest that 25-60% of patients having breast surgery experience persistent pain, with symptoms lasting from months to years following breast cancer diagnosis and treatment (Langford et al., PMID 25439318; Gartner et al., PMID 19903919).

Initial as...

In my experience, the single most frequent cause of locoregional pain following breast surgery is axillary cording. This is seldom recognized but quite common after mastectomy or BCS, when nodal sampling has been performed, even SLNB. I screen for this prior to simulation and perform a gentle releas...

In my experience, post-lumpectomy/post-radiation breast pain is most often due to underlying rib tenderness with no actual breast tenderness. Imaging is usually negative. The basis for the tenderness may be a mild degree of radiation-induced osteitis costae. This may well resolve over time with cons...