title: A survey of joint and muscle aches, pain, and stiffness comparing women with and without breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Joint and muscle aches, pain, and stiffness have been reported to be a problem for some women after adjuvant breast cancer treatment; however, the extent and impact of this problem are unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of this problem in comparison with women of a similar age without breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred forty-seven women attending breast cancer follow-up clinics were invited to complete pain and quality-of-life measures. A comparison group of 274 women of similar age was drawn from women attending breast screening and benign breast clinics. Prevalence and severity of pain were compared between the two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of all women in the study was 59 years (range 30-86 years). The median time since diagnosis of cancer was 28 months (range 2-184 months). Adjuvant treatments included radiotherapy (79%), chemotherapy (45%), and hormone therapy (81%). Sixty-two percent of women with breast cancer reported pain "today" compared with 53% of women without breast cancer (P = 0.023). Significant predictors of pain in both patient groups were cancer, age, and arthritis. For the cancer cases, significant predictors of pain were age, arthritis, taxane chemotherapy, aromatase inhibitors, and tamoxifen. Quality of life (measured by the Short Form-36) was significantly worse for women with breast cancer compared with controls and was significantly worse in the breast cancer cases with pain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Treatment with tamoxifen, taxane chemotherapy, and aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer is predictive of joint pain, which may have an impact on women's lives for some years after breast cancer.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fenlon
authors.forename: Julia M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Addington-Hall
authors.forename: Alison C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: O'Callaghan
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clough
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nicholls
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simmonds
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000844:Ankylosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D018771:Arthralgia / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D063806:Myalgia / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arthralgia; aromatase inhibitors; breast cancer; joint pain; survey; tamoxifen