Kinesiotherapy benefits wellness in breast cancer patients post-surgery

Kinesiotherapy, a common physical therapy practice to strengthen or rehabilitate muscles, may positively affect overall health outcomes in women with breast cancer following surgery, according to findings from new research.¹

A new meta-analysis conducted by investigators from Brazil showed kinesiotherapy may improve domains of quality of life including physical, emotional and social function in post-operative women receiving care for breast cancer. The data support a greater application of kinesiotherapy in women receiving invasive care for cancer going forward.

Previous research has shown that breast cancer diagnosis correlates with reduced rats of physical activity among individual women, as kinesiophobia—or fear of movement—is highly prevalent in this patient population.

“Following cancer treatment and a prolonged period of rest during oncology treatment, cancer survivors may perceive activity levels that were previously well tolerated as strongly fatiguing,” Malchrowicz-Mosko et al wrote.² “If, due to increased fear levels, one of the responses is to avoid or limit physical activity levels instead of gradually increasing it, then the fatigue may paradoxically be persisting and leading to a reduced quality of life. Such avoidance has been hypothesized as central to fear of pain and chronic fatigue and is called kinesiophobia.”

In the new meta-analysis, Matheus Goncalves Ribeiro, of the department of medicine at Federal University Goias in Brazil, sought to determine whether applying kinesiotherapy to post-mastectomy patients with breast cancer would improve quality of life.¹

Goncalves Ribeiro and colleagues conducted a search of PubMed, Cochrane, and the Virtual Health Library Regional Portal databases to identify randomized, observational studies comparing the performance versus non-performance of kinesiotherapy protocols in patients to have received breast cancer surgery. The team sought outcomes pertinent to overall health status, as well as physical, emotional and social domains of function.

The analysis included 867 patients from 12 relevant clinical trials. Among the trials, 5 (41.67%) conducted a before-after evaluation and 7 (58.33%) assessed intervention versus non-intervention in 2 trial arms. The total patient population included 669 women (77.2%) who underwent mascetomies.

Per standardized mean differences (SMDs), investigators observed significantly improved results with kinesiotherapy versus no kinesiotherapy in each observed domain of post-surgery breast cancer wellness:

• Overall health status (SMD, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.09 – 0.82; P = .01)
• Physical functioning (SMD, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.39 – 1.39; P = .0005)
• Social functioning (SMD, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.26 – 1.09; P = .001)
• Emotional functioning (SMD, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.40 – 1.40; P = .0004)

“Kinesiotherapy had a positive effect on the outcomes of overall health status and physical, social, and emotional functioning compared to controls,” investigators concluded. “Therefore, kinesiotherapy appears to help recover quality of life in patients submitted to surgery for breast cancer.”

References

1. ^{Gonçalves Ribeiro M, Ribeiro Soares L, Alves Marques V. Kinesiotherapy and Quality of Life after Breast Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2024 Oct 1;25(10):3341-3347. doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2024.25.10.3341. PMID: 39471000.}
2. ^{Malchrowicz-Mośko E, Nowaczyk P, Wasiewicz J, Urbaniak T, Siejak W, Rozmiarek M, Czerniak U, Demuth A, Aguirre-Betolaza AM, Castañeda-Babarro A. The level of kinesiophobia in breast cancer women undergoing surgical treatment. Front Oncol. 2023 Feb 2;13:1010315. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1010315. PMID: 36816937; PMCID: PMC9932589.}