|
Pain Often Persists Years After Breast Surgery
Reported November 10, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a study of Danish women who had
surgery for breast cancer, nearly half still reported pain 2 to 3 years
later, according to a report in this week's Journal of the American Medical
Association.
"Our study supports previous smaller studies that chronic pain after breast
cancer surgery and treatment is common and needs to receive more focus in
the future," senior investigator Dr. Henrik Kehlet from the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, told Reuters Health.
The findings stem from 3253 women who had surgery for breast cancer between
2005 and 2006 and who responded to a survey in 2009.
Forty-seven percent of respondents reported pain. In this group, pain was
described as severe in 13 percent, moderate in 39 percent, and light in 48
percent.
Twenty percent of the women had contacted a doctor within the 3 months prior
to the survey regarding their pain.
Research is needed to better understand "why some patients develop chronic
pain and others do not, despite the same injury," Kehlet said.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Loretta S. Loftus and Dr. Christine
Laronga, from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, comment that
the current findings "should prove helpful in the search for achieving
effective relief of pain after breast cancer surgery."
Source : Reuters News Service |
