Kinesiotherapy and Quality of Life after Breast Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis

To determine whether kinesiotherapy improves the quality of life of women with breast cancer following surgery.

This meta-analysis was conducted according to the Cochrane and PRISMA recommendations. A search was conducted of the PubMed, Cochrane, and the Virtual Health Library Regional Portal databases to identify randomized and observational studies that compared the performance versus non-performance of kinesiotherapy protocols in patients who had undergone breast cancer surgery. The outcomes evaluated were overall health status, physical functioning, emotional functioning, and social functioning. Statistical analyses were conducted using RevMan version 5.4.1. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 statistic.

Twelve studies with a total of 867 patients were included. Of these, 669 women (77.2%) underwent mastectomy. Five studies conducted a before-after evaluation and seven studies evaluated intervention versus non-intervention in two different groups. Of the outcomes evaluated, overall health status (standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.45; 95%CI: 0.09-0.82; p=0.01; I2=75%), physical functioning (SMD 0.89; 95%CI: 0.39-1.39; p=0.0005; I2=91%), social functioning (0.67; 95%CI: 0.26-1.09; p=0.001; I2=89%) and emotional functioning (SMD 0.90; 95%CI: 0.40-1.40; p=0.0004; I2=92%) showed significant results in favor of kinesiotherapy.

Kinesiotherapy had a positive effect on the outcomes of overall health status and physical, social, and emotional functioning compared to controls. Therefore, kinesiotherapy appears to help recover quality of life in patients submitted to surgery for breast cancer.