| Objective: To observe the effect of physical therapy combined with compression massage on activity, pain, numbness and lymphedema of the impaired limb in breast cancer patients with sequential chemoradiotherapy after radical mastectomy. Methods: Sixty cases of breast cancer were randomly and equally divided into observation group and control group. All patients were treated with radical mastectomy and postoperative sequential chemoradiotherapy. The observation group was given the physical therapy combined with compression massage on the affected limb for 3 months after the start of radiotherapy. Before and after treatment, the activity, pain and numbness of the affected limb, and the perimeter difference between the affected limb and the healthy one were evaluated. Results: After treatment for 3 months, range of shoulder motion in various directions was decreased as compared with that before treatment in both two groups (P<0.05). After treatment, VAS score and perimeter difference between the affected limb and the healthy one in both two groups were increased (P<0.05), and VAS score and perimeter difference between the affected limb and the healthy one in observation group were significantly reduced as compared with control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the numbness of the control group was significantly increased as compared with that before treatment (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the numbness of observation group before and after radiotherapy (P>0.05), and the numbness was obviously lower in observation group than in control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Radical mastectomy and postoperative sequential chemoradiotherapy could lead to limitation of motion, pain, numbness and edema of the affected limb. The physical therapy combined with compression massage can reduce edema of the affected limb, and improve motor function, symptoms of pain and numbness of the affected limb in patients with breast cancer. |
