• Isabel Monteiro, Samantha Morais, Ana Rute Costa, Luisa Lopes-Conceição, Natália Araújo, Filipa Fontes, Teresa Dias, Susana Pereira, and Nuno Lunet.
• Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
• Breast. 2019 Dec 1; 48: 38-44.

AimTo assess how sociodemographic, clinical and treatment characteristics impact employment status five-years following a breast cancer diagnosis, and to compare the incidence rate of changes with the general population.MethodsA total of 462 women with incident breast cancer were evaluated before treatment and three- and five-years later. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were computed through multinomial logistic regression. Data for comparisons were retrieved from the SHARE Project. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95%CIs were calculated using Poisson regression.ResultsAmong the 242 employed women prior to diagnosis, 162 remained employed, 26 became unemployed, 27 entered early retirement, 14 entered normal retirement and 13 were on sick leave at five-years. Unemployment increased with age (≥55 vs < 55 years: OR = 4.49, 95%CI:1.56-12.92; OR = 3.40, 95%CI:1.05-10.97 at three- and five-years, respectively) and decreased with education (>4 vs ≤ 4 years: OR = 0.36, 95%CI:0.13-0.97; OR = 0.27, 95%CI:0.10-0.71 at three- and five-years, respectively). Axillary surgery (unemployment at five-years: OR = 5.13, 95%CI:1.30-20.27), hormonal therapy (unemployment at three-years: OR = 0.28, 95%CI:0.10-0.83) and targeted therapy (sick leave at three-years: OR = 3.79, 95%CI:1.14-12.63) also influenced employment status. Five-years post diagnosis, women with breast cancer had a lower incidence of unemployment (IRR = 0.51, 95%CI:0.30-0.89) than the general population, while, among older women, there was a higher tendency to enter early retirement (IRR = 1.72, 95%CI:0.82-3.61).ConclusionsAlthough not all women may want to pursue or continue a professional life following their breast cancer experience; those who do may benefit from social and employer support when returning to work.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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