title: Establishing and sustaining a prospective screening program for breast cancer-related lymphedema at the massachusetts general hospital: lessons learned.
abstract: There has been an increasing call to prospectively screen patients with breast cancer for the development of breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) following their breast cancer treatment. While the components of a prospective screening program have been published, some centers struggle with how to initiate, establish, and sustain a screening program of their own. The intent of this manuscript is to share our experience and struggles in establishing a prospective surveillance program within the infrastructure of our institution. It is our hope that by sharing our history other centers can learn from our mistakes and successes to better design their own prospective screening program to best serve their patient population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. cbrunelle@partners.org.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brunelle
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. mskolny@partners.org.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skolny
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. cferguson4@partners.org.
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. mskolny@partners.org.
authors.forename: Meyha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swaroop
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. jotoole244@comcast.net.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: O'Toole
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ataghian@partners.org.
authors.forename: Alphonse G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Taghian
keywords: breast cancer; breast cancer-related lymphedema; lymphedema; perometer; screening