• Susana Pereira, Filipa Fontes, Teresa Sonin, Teresa Dias, Maria Fragoso, José Castro-Lopes, and Nuno Lunet.
• Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto, Porto, Portugal; EPIUnit-Institute of Public Health, University of Porto (ISPUP), Porto, Portugal.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Aug 7.

ContextNeuropathic pain (NP) may be an important contributor to the morbidity burden of breast cancer.ObjectivesWe aimed to quantify the incidence of NP in the first year after diagnosis of breast cancer and to identify its main determinants.MethodsWe performed a prospective cohort study including 506 patients with incident breast cancer, recruited at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto, and followed for one year; patients with incident NP were additionally evaluated when this condition was diagnosed and after six months, to identify chronic NP.ResultsDuring the first year, 156 patients were diagnosed with NP (30.8%, 95% CI 27.0-35.0). Anxiety (relative risk [RR] 1.50; 95% CI 1.06-2.13), arm symptoms (RR 1.44; 95% CI 1.02-2.05), cancer Stage III/IV (RR 2.47; 95% CI 1.66-3.66), breast-conserving surgery with axillary lymph node dissection (RR 3.13; 95% CI 1.51-6.48), mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection (RR 2.52; 95% CI 1.25-5.11), and damaging of the intercostobrachial nerve (RR 2.05; 95% CI 1.25-3.37) were predictors of a higher risk of NP. A total of 97 patients (62.2%, 95% CI 54.4-69.4) diagnosed with NP remained symptomatic after six months.ConclusionNP and chronic NP were frequent in this population, being associated with anxiety and arm symptoms before breast cancer treatments and type of surgical management. These results highlight the need for monitoring the occurrence of this neurologic side effect of treatments and to develop strategies for reducing the morbidity burden of breast cancer.Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

4 keywords...

hide…