Radiotherapy and Breast Reconstruction: What Is the Ideal Timing? A Narrative Review

Introduction: Women undergoing mastectomy choose to pursue breast reconstruction (BR) in order to reduce their body image distress.Adjuvant chest wall irradiation is associated with a negative cosmetic outcome. The aim of our review was to identify the optimal timing of BR relating to radiotherapy delivery. Materials and Methods: Using Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, Springer, Wanfang and CNKI, we performed a non-systematic review of articles published up to August 2021. Results: There is no hard evidence in favor of immediate, delayed or 2-stage BR when post-mastectomy radiation is indicated. Immediate and 2-stage BR seem to be valid alternatives to delayed BR. Conclusions: Further research is essential in order to assess clinician and patient reported aesthetic outcomes and determine the optimal timing of BR in view of post-mastectomy radiotherapy, in breast cancer survivors.