The impact of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia on the outcome of direct-to-implant immediate breast reconstruction

Abstract

Currently, direct-to-implant (DTI) immediate breast reconstruction is a well-accepted surgical treatment for patients who need skin-sparing mastectomy in breast cancer. Adjuvant therapy for breast cancer can include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, the targeted drug trastuzumab (Herceptin ® ), or a combination of treatments. Among these treatments, adjuvant chemotherapy is increasingly being used in women with breast cancer (1).Adjuvant chemotherapy increases the survival rate and decreases the recurrence rate in early-stage breast cancer (2). Unfortunately, adjuvant chemotherapy can cause chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) by suppressing the hematopoietic system (3,4). A deficit of neutrophils makes the patients vulnerable to infection and induce poor wound healing.Even though adjuvant chemotherapy following immediate breast reconstruction was demonstrated to not increase the risk of complications (5), no information