kOBCS © : a novel software calculator program of the Objective Breast Cosmesis Scale (OBCS)

Purpose The Objective Breast Cosmesis Scale (OBCS) is an objective method that documents the aesthetic changes in breast cancer patients. This work evaluates the kOBCS © software ( http://www.kobcs.info ) which simplifies the estimation of the OBCS values. Methods Five schematic drawings were photographed and imported into the kOBCS © . Thirty photos of breast cancer patients were imported into kOBCS © ; 20 users (experts and non-experts) evaluated the photographs on two different settings. Subjective evaluation was performed using the Harvard breast cosmesis scale. Results There was a highly significant correlation between the OBCS values based on hand measurements and the values estimated by kOBCS © ( r = 0.997, P < 0.001). Agreement among the users using the kOBCS © was strong with high statistical significance (ICC = 0.846, P < 0.001, 95% CI 0.774–0.910, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.991). Results of the subjective analyses and mean OBCS values as estimated by kOBCS © correlated significantly ( r = 0.961, P < 0.001). Conclusions The kOBCS © is a reliable and reproducible easy-to-use software for reporting breast cosmesis following breast-conserving therapy.