Lymphedema is a frequent complication associated with breast cancer treatment. It is estimated that up to 30% of patients undergoing mastectomy develop this condition within 12 to 24 months post-surgery. In Mexico, the limited emphasis placed on lymphedema prevention in breast cancer patients is reflected in the insufficient coverage of this issue within official medical guidelines. In this review, research articles, systematic reviews, and official treatment guidelines were retrieved from PubMed, Google Scholar, Elsevier, SciELO, and Redalyc databases, to examine studies about the application and effectiveness of physiotherapy techniques for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of postmastectomy lymphedema. Our findings indicate that complex decongestive therapy (CDT) is considered the first-line treatment for lymphedema. Among its components, compression therapy shows the strongest individual evidence base. Nevertheless, studies consistently demonstrate that the combined use of all four components of CDT (manual lymphatic drainage, compression, skin care, and exercise) results in superior patient outcomes. Despite this, CDT is not routinely implemented as a standard of care for patients following mastectomy and/or lymphadenectomy in Mexico. Therefore, there is a pressing need to promote the inclusion of physiotherapy strategies, particularly CDT, in the prevention and management of postmastectomy lymphedema within national healthcare protocols.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignant neoplasia and leading cause of cancer mortality for women. A timely diagnosis of BC is crucial to ensure the best chances of survival. Among the various screening tools for BC, antibodies directed towards self-antigens or tumor-associated antigens (autoantibodies) have emerged as an alternative to image-based screening modalities. However, little attention has been paid to the global diversity of autoantibodies. This work aimed to analyze the diversity of autoantibodies reactive to antigens expressed by the BC cell line T47D in the sera of Mexican women with BC, benign breast pathology (BBP), or without breast pathology (WBP). We found that the diversity of antibodies in the sera was higher in the BC and BBP groups than in the WBP group. Likewise, the diversity changed with the progression of BC. Our results show and measure the complexity of the antibody response in breast health and disease.