Supporting Women Beyond Breast Cancer Treatment

Sea-Long Clinical Insights August 2026 | Week 3

Breast Cancer Research, Recovery, and the Role Hyperbaric Medicine May Play

For many women, breast cancer treatment does not end when surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation is completed.

Recovery can continue long afterward.

August 18, Breast Cancer Research Day, gives us an opportunity to recognize the importance of continued research while also recognizing the women, families, clinicians, surgeons, nurses, wound-care teams, and other healthcare professionals involved throughout the breast cancer journey.

At Sea-Long Medical Systems, our role is different from that of the healthcare professionals providing treatment. As a manufacturer and distributor of respiratory and hyperbaric medical products, our responsibility is to support the professionals and facilities caring for patients by providing dependable equipment, product knowledge, and responsive service.

Recovery After Breast Cancer Treatment

Breast cancer treatment can involve mastectomy, lumpectomy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, breast reconstruction, or a combination of treatments.

For some patients, recovery after treatment can become complicated.

Following mastectomy and breast reconstruction, for example, blood flow to portions of the reconstructed tissue or mastectomy skin flap can sometimes become compromised. Radiation treatment can also produce tissue injury that may appear months or years after treatment.

These are complex medical situations requiring evaluation and management by the patient's healthcare team.

In certain circumstances, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) may be considered as an adjunctive treatment.

Where Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Fits

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy should not be presented as routine treatment following breast cancer surgery or uncomplicated breast reconstruction.

Its role is more specific.

The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society recognizes hyperbaric oxygen therapy for conditions including compromised grafts and flaps and delayed radiation injuries.

When a graft or flap is healthy and uncompromised, HBOT is not recommended simply to support normal healing.

When tissue becomes compromised because of inadequate perfusion or hypoxia, however, hyperbaric oxygen may be considered by the treating medical team as part of an overall treatment plan.

Research involving women who developed ischemic complications following mastectomy and breast reconstruction has reported encouraging outcomes with HBOT, particularly when threatened tissue is identified and treatment begins promptly. However, current research remains limited, and additional high-quality clinical studies are still needed.

Breast Reconstruction and Compromised Tissue

Breast reconstruction can involve implants, tissue expanders, or reconstruction using a patient's own tissue.

Regardless of the technique, adequate blood flow is essential to tissue survival.

When portions of a mastectomy skin flap or reconstructed tissue become ischemic, the healthcare team must determine the cause and appropriate intervention.

HBOT does not replace surgical evaluation or correction of an underlying problem.

Instead, in selected cases involving compromised tissue, it may be used alongside surgical and wound-care management in an effort to support threatened tissue.

That distinction matters.

Hyperbaric medicine is part of a multidisciplinary approach—not a substitute for appropriate surgical or oncologic care.

Radiation Injury Can Appear Later

Radiation therapy plays an important role in breast cancer treatment, but radiation can also produce long-term changes in healthy tissue within the treatment field.

Some radiation-related tissue injuries may not become apparent until well after cancer treatment has ended.

Delayed radiation tissue injury is an established indication for HBOT in appropriately selected patients. Management may involve several specialties and, depending on the individual situation, can include wound care, surgery, reconstructive procedures, and hyperbaric medicine.

The decision belongs to the patient's healthcare team after evaluating the individual circumstances.

Why Continued Research Matters

This is why Breast Cancer Research Day matters to us.

Research isn't limited to discovering better ways to diagnose or eliminate cancer.

It also includes learning how to:

• Reduce complications from treatment

• Improve reconstructive techniques

• Better understand radiation injury

• Preserve threatened tissue

• Improve wound management

• Determine which patients may benefit from adjunctive therapies

• Help women recover after cancer treatment

Recent research into HBOT following breast reconstruction is encouraging, but it also demonstrates why continued study is necessary.

Better evidence helps clinicians determine when a treatment should be used, when it should not be used, and which patients are most likely to benefit.

Sea-Long's Role

Sea-Long does not diagnose breast cancer, determine whether a patient needs hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or prescribe a treatment protocol.

Our job is to support the professionals who do.

For facilities providing hyperbaric care, that means supplying respiratory and hyperbaric products and supporting the people who use them.

It means answering product questions.

It means helping facilities identify replacement components.

It means providing dependable customer service when equipment is needed.

And it means continuing to educate ourselves about the environments in which our products are used.

Behind every piece of equipment is a patient.

Sometimes that patient is a woman who has already faced cancer treatment, surgery, radiation, reconstruction, or several of them—and is now working through another part of her recovery.

We should never lose sight of that.

Sea-Long Clinical Insight

HBOT is not routine postoperative care for every breast cancer or reconstruction patient.

For selected patients experiencing conditions such as compromised grafts or flaps or delayed radiation tissue injury, hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be considered by the treating healthcare team as one component of a broader treatment plan.

Patients experiencing wound-healing problems or other complications following breast cancer treatment should speak with their surgeon or treating healthcare professional about appropriate evaluation and treatment options.

On August 18, We Recognize the Research—and the Women Behind It

On Breast Cancer Research Day, Sea-Long Medical Systems recognizes the researchers working toward better answers, the healthcare professionals caring for patients, and the women whose experiences give that research its purpose.

Treatment may end.

Support should not.

Sea-Long Clinical Insights

Practical education and product knowledge for hyperbaric professionals.

Sea-Long Medical Systems is a manufacturer and distributor of respiratory and hyperbaric medical products.

This article is intended for general educational information. It does not constitute medical advice and does not replace product labeling, instructions for use, facility procedures, or evaluation and treatment by qualified healthcare professionals.