Short Title: Arm Skin Water in Women with Breast Cancer

Skin-to-fat water was assessed pre-surgery in breast cancer patients by tissue dielectric constant (TDC) and in patients about 26 months after surgery. Relationships between inter-arm TDC ratios and nodes removed and symptoms were determined and tentative lymphedema threshold ratios suggested. 1 Background: Skin-to-fat tissue dielectric constant (TDC) values at 300 MHz largely depend on tissue water and provide a rapid way to assess skin water by touching skin with a probe for about 10 seconds. This method has been used to investigate lymphedema features accompanying breast cancer (BC) but relationships between TDC and nodes removed or symptoms is unclear. Our goals were to 1)compare TDC values in BC patients prior-to-surgery (group-A) and in patients who had BC-related surgery (group-B) to determine if TDC of group-B were related to nodes removed and reported symptoms and 2)develop tentative lymphedema-detection thresholds. Methods: Arm volumes and TDC values of at-risk and contralateral forearms and biceps were determined in 103 women awaiting surgery for BC and 104 women who had BC-related surger