Late Effects of Breast Cancer Treatment and Outcome after Corrective Interventions.

Purpose: To study the late toxicities of treatment and its impact on Breast cancer survivors among Indian patients.Materials and Methods: Our study recruited 152 curatively treated non metastatic carcinoma breast patients. Thebaseline demographic details, disease related and treatment related information were collected. The late effects includedbreast cancer related lymphedema, shoulder dysfunction, treatment induced bone loss, hypothyroidism, cardiacdysfunction, and chemotherapy induced cognitive dysfunction and Quality of life. Results: The median age was 47years (range 27 -72 years). The cumulative frequency of BCRL and shoulder dysfunction was 31.57% and 34.86%respectively. The improvement in BCRL with corrective intervention was not statistically significant. The BCRL wassignificantly associated with shoulder dysfunction. The frequency of loss of bone mineral density was 38.15%. There wasstatistically significant improvement in bone mineral density with interventions. The cumulative rate of hypothyroidismand cardiac dysfunction was 14.47 % and 2.17% respectively which improved after corrective therapy. We did not findany delayed cognitive dysfunction. There was improvement in global health, physical function, role function, fatigue,Nausea, vomiting, pain scores, insomnia, Loss of appetite, diarrhea and arm symptoms over time with intervention.Conclusion: Our study has shown that nearly half of the survivors were suffering from at least one of the late effects.The intervention helped in improving the loss of bone mineral density, hypothyroidism, cardiac dysfunction and qualityof life in Breast cancer survivors.