An increasing number of patients is treated for breast cancer during their professional life. The aim of this study was to assess factors impacting return to work and time to return to work after treatment.

One thousand and sixty-seven patients less than 60 years of age, and surgically treated in our institution between January 1st, 2004 and December 31st, 2005 received a questionnaire with medical, sociodemographic and professional items. An answer was obtained in 586 cases. Two hundred and seventy-three patients were evaluable. All the clinical files of these patients were reviewed.

Overall, 79.8% of the patients returned to work after a median delay of 11.5 months. In the multivariate analysis, the factors affecting the return to work were: age (P<0.0001), educational level (P<0.001), colleagues’ support (P<0.001), chemotherapy (P<0.05), lymphedema (P<0.01), and the physical (P=0.01) and psychological (P<0.01) constraints of the job. The factors affecting the time until return to work were very quite similar. No significant difference was observed according to the type of surgery, radiation therapy or not, hormonotherapy or not.

Eighty percent of the patients with a professional activity before treatment returned to work; the factors affecting return to work were medical, demographic and socio-professional.