Effectiveness of a Nonpneumatic Active Compression Device in Older Adults with Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: A Subanalysis of a Randomized Crossover Trial.

Background: A recently completed clinical trial compared a novel nonpneumatic compression device (NPCD) with a traditional advanced pneumatic compression device (APCD) for the treatment of breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL); the study revealed that the NPCD produced superior clinical and quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes. In this subanalysis, we sought to examine these results within the subset of trial subjects aged ≥65 years. Methods: A randomized crossover head-to-head trial was conducted to compare the NPCD with a commercially available APCD. Patients were randomly assigned to one or the other device for 28 days of use, followed by a 4-week washout period before a comparable 28-day utilization of the alternate device. Limb edema, adherence to daily device use, and QOL measures were collected at day 0 and 28 of each period. Results: A total of 14 subjects were aged ≥65. During NPCD use, subjects experienced a mean decrease in limb edema of 100.3% ( p  = 0.0082) as well as improvements in mean overall and subscale scores of the Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire (LYMQOL). By comparison, during APCD use limb edema decreased by a mean of 2.9% ( p  = 0.8899) with no significant changes in any LYMQOL scores. Mean adherence was significantly higher during NPCD use (96.6%) than during APCD use (58.3%, p  < 0.0001). Conclusions: The novel NPCD produced superior clinical and QOL outcomes in older subjects with BCRL. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04908254.