ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research suggests breast cancer
survivors treated with surgery and radiation have a good overall quality of life
several years after treatment. Although the rigors of breast cancer treatment
usually decrease a woman’s quality of life temporarily, the results of a survey
given at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia gives hope to these kinds
of patients.
“Patients are still often told that they’ll never be the same … but to say
they’ll never recover their prior health and prior ability to do their normal
activities … is just not true,” Gary Freedman, M.D., lead researcher and
attending physician in the department of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer
Center, told Ivanhoe.
The survey was administered to women with early stage breast cancer at various
points in their follow-up after surgery and radiation treatment. Questions were
included about mobility; self-care; anxiety and depression; pain and discomfort;
and ability to perform usual activities.
The index scores gathered were compared to a survey of the general U.S. adult
population. Researchers found no significant difference in quality of life
between breast cancer patients and the general population.
“I think it’s reassuring to say that from one year to even long-term -- 15 years
-- after treatment, we see that the health states of these survivors … continue
to have excellent levels of functioning and excellent levels of outlook that
does not decline over time any differently than it normally would,” Dr. Freedman
said.
Dr. Freedman noted that one setback of the survey was the fact that it didn’t
distinguish between pain caused by breast cancer treatment and other types of
pain normally associated with aging.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Gary Freedman, M.D.;Presented at the 50th
annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology,
September 21-25, 2008
