The researchers found out more about the type of pain women have after breast cancer treatment and the negative impact it has on quality of life.
The researchers recruited people between 2010 and 2011. They published some of the results in 2014. They are planning further publications, and we hope to update this summary when they are available.
543 women joined the study. They’d all had surgery for breast cancer.
Everyone filled in a set of questionnaires 5 times over 2 years.
These asked about:
- the women’s ages and where they lived
- their quality of life
- any joint pain they had, it’s severity and location
- any other medical conditions they had
Results
The researchers looked at the results of the questionnaires.
They found:
- 7 out of 10 women (70%) reported joint or muscle pain, aches or stiffness in the previous 7 days
- about 3 out of 10 women (30%) reported joint pain aches or stiffness in the previous 7 days
- quality of life was worse in women who reported these problems
Conclusion
The study establishes that this type of pain happens quite often after breast cancer. And it is linked with a negative impact on quality of life.
The researchers concluded that it is important to better understand these symptoms of pain and the impact it has on women’s lives. This can help healthcare professionals to better support these women and provide accurate information to help with treatment decisions.
There are more publications planned for this research to understand more about what might cause the pain. We hope to add them as they become available.
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
peer reviewed 
) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.