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Review
. 2020 Oct 12;18(1):338.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-020-01591-x.

Health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients: review of reviews from 2008 to 2018

Parisa Mokhtari-Hessari  1   2 , Ali Montazeri  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients: review of reviews from 2008 to 2018

Parisa Mokhtari-Hessari et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer still is a topic. This overview of the literature aimed to update the current knowledge on quality of life in breast cancer patients.

Methods: A review of literature in MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Google Scholar were carried out to identify review papers on health-related quality of life in breast cancer during the 2008 to 2018. All publications were screened using the PRISMA guideline. The methodological quality of reviews was assessed using the AMSTAR. The findings were summarized and tabulated accordingly.

Results: Within over a decade, a total of 974 review papers were identified which according to the study selection criteria finally we have evaluated 82 reviews. Of these about 85% had a reasonable methodological quality. The findings were mainly summarized on several headings including instruments used to measure quality of life, treatment, supportive care, psychological distress, and symptoms. Questionnaires had a good performance to quantify quality of life in breast cancer patients. Most reviews were focused on the impact of treatment including endocrine therapy as well as integrating complementary and alternative medicine into the current practice. According to the reviews, yoga was the most recommended exercise to improve quality of life in breast cancer patients.

Conclusion: Overall, the findings from this overview indicated that quality of life in breast cancer patients enhanced during the last decade. Several simple but effective interventions such as physical activity and psychosocial interventions proved to be effective in improving quality of life in this population. However, management of symptoms such as pain, and lymphedema, issues related to worry, sexual function especially for young patients, and the future outlooks all are among topics that deserve further consideration. Also, this overview indicated that methodological issues in measuring quality of life in breast cancer patients improved greatly, but still there is a long way to go to understand what really matter to patients.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Overview; Patient-reported outcome; Quality of life; Review of reviews.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The study flowchart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Quality scoring according to the AMSTAR checklist
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Frequency of reviews on quality of life in breast cancer patients during 2008–2018
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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