Abstract
Background
In breast cancer survivors, multiple risk factors for health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and chronic pain, including cancer treatment-related factors, psychosocial factors, and central sensitization (CS), have been suggested; however, there has been no comparative study between breast cancer survivors with and without pain. This study aimed to compare the demographic characteristics, psychological factors, and CS-related symptoms between breast cancer survivors with pain, those without pain, and healthy controls, and to investigate the relationships of these factors with HRQoL.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 218 women, including patients who underwent breast cancer surgery and adjuvant therapy and healthy women.
Results
Patients were divided into the pain group (n = 42), without-pain group (n = 51), and healthy group (n = 47); thus, among breast cancer survivors, 45% reported chronic pain. The proportion of participants who received breast cancer treatments, such as axillary lymph node dissection and chemotherapy, was higher in the pain group than in the without-pain group (p < 0.05). The Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) and psychosocial factors in the pain group were higher than those in the without-pain group and healthy group (p < 0.01). The CSI and PCS showed larger effect sizes than treatment-related factors. Moreover, HRQoL was significantly correlated with CSI, PCS, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 scale (all, p < 0.01). On multiple linear regression analysis, CSI accounted for 43% of the variance in HRQoL.
Conclusions
CS and pain catastrophizing may be more associated with the development and/or maintenance of persistent pain than treatment-related factors.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Hiroe Kanamori, Izumi Kameyama, Yumi Nakakura, Yasuko Tanaka, Naoko Takahashi, and Noriko Hashimoto for assistance with data collection.
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Manfuku, M., Nishigami, T., Mibu, A. et al. Comparison of central sensitization-related symptoms and health-related quality of life between breast cancer survivors with and without chronic pain and healthy controls. Breast Cancer 26, 758–765 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-019-00979-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-019-00979-y