Terramed Alliance News Nearly half of all breast cancer patients experienced chronic pain two to three years after treatment and more than half felt discomfort, according to a study by Danish researchers published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New York Times reports. The study found that women younger than age 40, those who underwent radiation treatment and those who had surgery to remove lymph nodes in the armpit are most likely to experience lingering pain.

In an accompanying editorial, Loretta Loftus, a senior member of the breast cancer program at the Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, wrote, “This should alert clinicians who are caring for these patients to pay more attention to those who are in the high risk groups for pain” (Caryn Rabin, New York Times, 11/10).

Researchers examined a 2009 survey of 3,253 Danish women who had breast cancer surgery in 2005 and 2006, Reuters reports. Forty-seven percent of the patients reported pain. Within that group, 13% described the pain as severe, 39% described it as moderate and 48% said it was light. Twenty percent of the women surveyed said they had contacted a physician within the last three months regarding their pain (Brown, Reuters, 11/10). Women of all ages who had mastectomies were more likely to have severe pain than light pain. Pain most frequently occurred in the breast that was operated upon, in the chest area where tissue was removed, in the upper arm where lymph nodes were removed or along one side of the body, according to U.S. News & World Report’s “On Women.”

“This study isn’t saying to change treatment recommendations based on whether or not a certain treatment is likely to be associated with pain,” Loftus said, adding, “But it’s telling oncologists that they need to be more alert to the incidence of pain,” she said (Kotz, “On Women,” U.S. News & World Report, 11/10). The study’s author, Henrik Kehlet of the University of Copenhagen, said more research is needed to determine why some women experience lingering pain and others do not (Szabo, USA Today, 11/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

Terramed Alliance is a non-profit charity organization dedicated to research, education and advocacy of breast cancer. One of the vision of Terramed Alliance is to provide this community and Internet users with a charity based research and education entity. Advocacy of breast cancer through education is vital to the reduction of this disease.  For any requests and enquiries, please contact at us: cancer@terramedalliance.us www.terramedalliance.us

Related Info:

1. Cancer Treatment India – Affordable Cost and World Class In India Cancer Treatment in India We Care India partner hospitals are leader in translating knowledge gained from cancer research into effective care for cancer patients and their families. Cancer is one of the most serious diseases that can afflict a person. With over 200 different types of cancer that can occur within the human [...]...


2. Treatment For Breast Cancer Breast cancer refers to a malignant tumor that has formed from cells in the breast. It usually starts in the cells of the lobules or the ducts. The lobules are milk-producing glands and ducts are passages where milk travels from lobules to nipple. This type of cancer is always caused by genetic [...]...


3. Cancer Treatment In India At Affordable Cost – Cancer Chemotherapy India Cancer Treatment In India Cancer Treatment Cancer Treatment We Care India partner hospitals are leader in translating knowledge gained from cancer research into effective care for cancer patients and their families. . . Treatment We Care India partner oncologists treat virtually every type of cancer known from the most common to the most rare [...]...


4. Breast cancer? Can I beat this? What does it mean to have a favorable prognosis? If your doctor says that you have a favorable prognosis, this means that the breast cancer is likely to respond well to treatment. In the same token, an unfavorable prognosis means that probably the breast cancer may be hard to control. Breast cancer staging [...]...


5. Breast Pain Problems One myth of breast cancer is that is does not hurt. Most of the time breast pain comes from non-cancer causes, such as hormonal changes. With IBC there is pain involved more so than other types of breast cancer. Breast problems in women include a variety of benign and malignant disorders. [...]...


6. Genetic Risk Factors in Breast Cancer Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States. In 2008, approximately 184,450 patients were estimated to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and an estimated 40,930 were estimated to die of this disease. Furthermore, over 50,000 female carcinoma in situ [...]...


7. Marker that Indicates Breast Cancer Recurrence One of the most significant concerns of breast cancer patients is the rate at which the cancer is likely to spread. If the rate and aggressiveness with which the cancer will spread cab be determined, the aggressiveness of the chemo treatment can also be determined. Patients with a type of cancer that is less likely [...]...

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Breast Cancer Surgery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.