Exercise and Breast Pain

After adjuvant therapies, the 5-year survival of breast cancer patients with localized and locoregional breast cancer is estimated to be 98% and 83% respectively 1. Because many patients become longterm survivors, concerns about the mediumand long-term consequences of their treatment regimens have led to multiple quality-of-life (qol) studies that have demonstrated significant emotional, cognitive, and physical deterioration after treatment 2,3. Those studies showed that symptoms such as muscle stiffness, breast sensitivity, tendency to take naps, and difficulty concentrating were common and associated with poor physical functioning and emotional well-being 3–6. Surgery and radiotherapy are thought to cause acute and chronic breast pain, tenderness, and shoulder impairments in up to 50% of patients who complete breast-conserving therapy 7–12. The U.K. start (Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy) trial, which compared hypofractionation with conventional fractionation of adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer, assessed the qol of 2208 of the patients over 5 years 13. It was observed that 20% and 30% of the patients from both arms of the study experienced breast and arm pain respectively at 5 years of follow-up 13. Randomized controlled studies have shown that, compared with control patients who received no interventions, breast cancer patients directed to exercise more frequently after their diagnosis experienced improvements in physical functioning, overall qol, and cardiopulmonary functioning 14,15. In 2006, the McGill Comprehensive Health Improvement Program (chip), which was originally developed for patients with cardiovascular disease, started to include an exercise rehabilitation program to help cancer survivors ABSTRACT