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A survey of joint and muscle aches, pain and stiffness comparing women with and without breast cancer

A survey of joint and muscle aches, pain and stiffness comparing women with and without breast cancer
A survey of joint and muscle aches, pain and stiffness comparing women with and without breast cancer
Context: Joint and muscle aches, pain, and stiffness have been reported to be a problem for some women after adjuvant breast cancer treatment; however, the extent and impact of this problem are unknown.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of this problem in comparison with women of a similar age without breast cancer.

Methods: Two hundred forty-seven women attending breast cancer follow-up clinics were invited to complete pain and quality of life measures. A comparison group of 274 women of similar age were drawn from women attending breast screening and benign breast clinics. Prevalence and severity of pain were compared between the two groups.

Results: The mean age of all women in the study was 59 years (range 30–86 years). The median time since diagnosis of cancer was 28 months (range 2–184 months). Adjuvant treatments included radiotherapy (79%), chemotherapy (45%), and hormone therapy (81%). Sixty-two percent of women with breast cancer reported pain “today” compared with 53% of women without breast cancer (P = 0.023). Significant predictors of pain in both patient groups were cancer, age, and arthritis. For the cancer cases, significant predictors of pain were age, arthritis, taxane chemotherapy, aromatase inhibitors, and tamoxifen. Quality of life (measured by the Short Form 36) was significantly worse for women with breast cancer compared with controls and was significantly worse in the breast cancer cases with pain.

Conclusion: Treatment with tamoxifen, taxane chemotherapy, and aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer is all predictive of joint pain, which may have an impact on women's lives for some years after breast cancer.
0885-3924
523-535
Fenlon, Deborah
52f9a9f1-1643-449c-9856-258ef563342c
Addington-Hall, Julia
87560cc4-7562-4f9b-b908-81f3b603fdd8
O'Callaghan, Alison
058f3917-b556-4eef-a393-4c025a3c4ccb
Clough, Joanne
c195e9d0-f921-40de-acbd-638ef8379f4f
Nicholls, Peter
18255e5f-5086-4cc5-bf75-d6aad9ee51d9
Simmonds, Peter
27d4c068-e352-4cbf-9899-771893788ade
Fenlon, Deborah
52f9a9f1-1643-449c-9856-258ef563342c
Addington-Hall, Julia
87560cc4-7562-4f9b-b908-81f3b603fdd8
O'Callaghan, Alison
058f3917-b556-4eef-a393-4c025a3c4ccb
Clough, Joanne
c195e9d0-f921-40de-acbd-638ef8379f4f
Nicholls, Peter
18255e5f-5086-4cc5-bf75-d6aad9ee51d9
Simmonds, Peter
27d4c068-e352-4cbf-9899-771893788ade

Fenlon, Deborah, Addington-Hall, Julia, O'Callaghan, Alison, Clough, Joanne, Nicholls, Peter and Simmonds, Peter (2013) A survey of joint and muscle aches, pain and stiffness comparing women with and without breast cancer. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 46 (4), 523-535. (doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2012.10.282). (PMID:23507130)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Context: Joint and muscle aches, pain, and stiffness have been reported to be a problem for some women after adjuvant breast cancer treatment; however, the extent and impact of this problem are unknown.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of this problem in comparison with women of a similar age without breast cancer.

Methods: Two hundred forty-seven women attending breast cancer follow-up clinics were invited to complete pain and quality of life measures. A comparison group of 274 women of similar age were drawn from women attending breast screening and benign breast clinics. Prevalence and severity of pain were compared between the two groups.

Results: The mean age of all women in the study was 59 years (range 30–86 years). The median time since diagnosis of cancer was 28 months (range 2–184 months). Adjuvant treatments included radiotherapy (79%), chemotherapy (45%), and hormone therapy (81%). Sixty-two percent of women with breast cancer reported pain “today” compared with 53% of women without breast cancer (P = 0.023). Significant predictors of pain in both patient groups were cancer, age, and arthritis. For the cancer cases, significant predictors of pain were age, arthritis, taxane chemotherapy, aromatase inhibitors, and tamoxifen. Quality of life (measured by the Short Form 36) was significantly worse for women with breast cancer compared with controls and was significantly worse in the breast cancer cases with pain.

Conclusion: Treatment with tamoxifen, taxane chemotherapy, and aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer is all predictive of joint pain, which may have an impact on women's lives for some years after breast cancer.

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Accepted/In Press date: 23 October 2012
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 March 2013
Published date: October 2013
Organisations: Faculty of Health Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 352820
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/352820
ISSN: 0885-3924
PURE UUID: 7eb6a215-ce66-4b97-857a-a59b5364e097

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Date deposited: 21 May 2013 11:28
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 13:57

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Contributors

Author: Deborah Fenlon
Author: Joanne Clough
Author: Peter Nicholls
Author: Peter Simmonds

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