title: Quality of life of recently treated patients with breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the negative quality of life result of a large randomized exercise intervention study (BREX) was due to considerable spontaneous recovery after adjuvant treatments.
  
  
  METHODS
  The change in QoL was studied in the control patients of the BREX study (Group 1) and a group of similar follow-up patients that did not participate in any intervention study (Group 2). QoL was measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 with the breast cancer module supplement 6 and 12 months after surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  QoL improved in both groups between 6 and 12 months after surgery. The improvement was similar in both groups for global QoL and for most of the QoL sub-scales.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that participation in an exercise intervention per se significantly improves QoL. Spontaneous improvement in QoL began during the first six months after the primary treatments, which might have confounded the results of the intervention of the BREX study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, P.O.Box 180, 00029 HUS, Finland. heidi.penttinen@hus.fi.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Penttinen
authors.forename: Mervi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rautalin
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roine
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jahkola
authors.forename: Pirkko-Liisa
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Kellokumpu-Lehtinen
authors.forename: Riikka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huovinen
authors.forename: Hannu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kautiainen
authors.forename: Salme
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Järvenpää
authors.forename: Liisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hakamies-Blomqvist
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blomqvist
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saarto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D015996:Survival Rate; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Breast cancer; quality of life; rehabilitation