Nearly Half of Breast Cancer Survivors Have Lingering Pain

TUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2009 (Health.com) — Almost half of women who have breast cancer surgery still have pain or numbness two to three years later, according to a new study. Women younger than 40 who receive lumpectomies are at the greatest risk.

In general, women are most likely to have pain or a loss of sensation in the breast region, followed by the armpit, the arm, and their sides. However, 40% of women with lingering symptoms have pain in parts of the body not affected by treatment, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“This is a very well-done study by very well-respected surgeons in Denmark,” says Allen Burton, MD, a professor and the chair of the department of pain medicine in the division of anesthesiology and critical care at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.

“This is a known phenomenon,” says Dr. Burton, who wasn’t involved in the study. “These women have pain and huge numb patches in their chest, underarm, down their arm, and in their back that never feels normal again.”

None of the women in the study had reconstructive breast surgery, which is commonplace in the United States. “It would be interesting to see if that changes the outcome,” Dr. Burton says. “Would they have more pain? Less pain? Different kinds of pain?”

In the study of 3,754 breast cancer survivors ages 18 to 70, 47% had pain in one or more area, and 58% reported problems in the treated breast, including burning and a loss of sensation for one to three years after their surgery. Overall, 13% of women with lingering problems said their pain was severe, 39% said it was moderate, and 48% reported light pain. And 76% of patients with severe pain said they ached every day.

Women at the greatest risk for chronic pain were ages 18 to 39 and had undergone breast-conserving surgery, or lumpectomy, in which doctors remove only the tumor and some surrounding tissue. Other risk factors for persistent pain included radiation therapy, which is directed at the breast area to destroy any remaining cancer cells after surgery.

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