Table 3 Risk factors of lymphedema

BMI > 25

Age > 60

Number of metastatic LNs

Having a Breast/Chest-wall RT

Having Axillary RT

Lumpectomy^a

(KİBar, Aras et al. 2015) [27]

5.911 (OR1.698–20.583)

3.680 (OR1.076–12.583)

1.115 (OR1.043–1.192)

3.249 (OR1.742–6.060)

4.375 (OR1.439–13.306)

0.294 (OR0.062–1.402)^a

Patients undergoing Level III Mastectomy/ Lumpectomy/ Chemotherapy/ Radiotherapy

Arm circumference measurement

Having mastectomy (ALND) + RT

(Ozcinar, Guler et al. 2012) [29]

Patients with ALND + RT had statistically increased rate

of lymphedema than patients with ALND and without RT

(p = 0.030)

Stage I, II who underwent mastectomy

Arm circumference measurement

BMI > 25

Axillary Radiotherapy

Stage of the cancer (I-III)

(Ozaslan and Kuru 2004) [30]

5.55 (RR2.28–13.51)

2.75 (RR1.48–5.08)

Not significant

Stage I-III

Arm circumference measurement

Number of lymph node removed

16–25

Removal > 25

Adjuvant RT + LND

Chemotherapy

(Rebegea, Firescu et al. 2015) [21]

1.85 (OR1.27–2.71)

4.88 (OR2.25–10.58)

3.87 (OR1.39–6.51)

1.45 (OR1.12–2.24)

Stages I-IV

Arm circumference measurement

Presence of seroma after breast cancer surgery

Staging of cancer^a

Time after surgery

(Paiva, Rodrigues et al. 2013) [34]

2.71(PR1.49–4.91)

1.15(PR0.78–2.92)^a

Surgery for > 5 years is 9.7 times higher frequency than < 5 years

Women undergoing oncology follow up

Perimetry

Staging (Locally advanced III)^a

Post RT skin necrosis

(Khanna, Gupta et al. 2019) [41]

2.21(OR 0.54–9.04)^a

4.34 (OR1.07–17.65)

Early and locally advanced stages

Arm circumference measurement

Higher BMI

Increasing number of lymph nodes dissected

Higher nodal ratio

Regional Lymph Node Radiation (RLNR)

(Rastogi, Jain et al. 2018) [42]

1.191 (HR0.809–1.755)

1.445 (HR1.116–1.872)

1.135 (HR1.037–1.243)

1.020 (HR0.042–24.571)

Stage II – III

Arm circumference measurement

Axillary RT

Presence of co-morbid condition

(Deo, Ray et al. 2004) [45]

0.0709 (HR2.3222–7.1601)

0.1593 (HR1.1441–2.9369)

Stage I-III

Arm circumference measurement

Engaging in moderate to severe physical activity

BMI of ≥25

Invasiveness of the tumor

Modified Radical Mastectomy

Having radiotherapy

Past history of limb damage

Number of lymph nodes removed

(Honarvar, Sayar et al. 2016) [47]

14.0 (OR2.6–73.3)

4.2 (OR2.0–8.7)

13.7 (OR7.3–25.6)

4.3 (OR2.3–7.9)

3.9 (OR1.8–8.2)

1.7 (OR0.9–3.1)

1.1 (OR1.0–1.1)

Women with breast cancer

Arm circumference measurement

BMI

(Ay, Kutun et al. 2014) [28]

BMI of 25–29.9 was 1.445 times

more likely to develop lymphoedema than a patient with a BMI

of < 17.9 (p < 0.001), and a patient with a BMI of 30–34.9 was

6.643 times more likely to develop it than a patient with a BMI of

< 17.9 (p < 0.001).

Stage I & II

Arm circumference measurement

Age

BMI

Staging^a

(de Melo Ferreira, de Figueiredo et al. 2012) [49]

1.09 (OR1.00–1.18)

1.34 (OR1.01–1.77)

0.33 (OR0.02–5.33)^a

Stage I-IV

Clinical diagnosis