NEON-BC is a cohort (longitudinal study) of the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP), which has monitored, since 2012, 506 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and who were proposed for surgical treatment at the Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto (IPO Porto).
The goal is to contribute to improving knowledge regarding breast cancer complications and its treatments, namely the impact on the quality of life of women and changes in lifestyles.
The participants in the study, all 18 years of age or older, were followed by ISPUP researchers in the first year after diagnosis of the disease, and three and five years after diagnosis.
The results show that treatments for breast cancer often lead to neurological complications within the first three years following diagnosis.
The most frequent complications are “neuropathic pain, described as a burning sensation or electric shock, often located in the breast or thoracic region, in the armpit or arm on the side that is being treated, and peripheral polyneuropathy induced by chemotherapy, with sensory symptoms in the hands and feet, but also sometimes lacking strength and neuropathic pain, says Susana Pereira, researcher at ISPUP and Neurologist at IPO Porto.
The ISPUP researcher, Filipa Fontes, also verified that neuropathic pain deteriorates the patients´sleep quality, with this deterioration being more pronounced in those whose pain is more severe and who did not have problems at this level before beginning treatment. In addition, researchers found that radiotherapy is associated with a higher risk of a decrease in the sleep quality of participants.
Taking into account these results, this researcher stresses that “it is important to inform patients about the possibility of neuropathic pain arising during and after therapy“, and that some strategies to reduce the impact of pain on sleep quality could go through “creating a cozy environment at bedtime, reducing the consumption of stimulant drinks and exercising regularly”.
The study also concluded that, in terms of lifestyles and behavioral changes, a significant percentage of women positively changed their health behaviors following diagnosis. Among those who did not follow the recommendations before breast cancer diagnosis, about 30% stopped smoking and 25% decreased alcohol consumption to one unit per day or less. Furthermore, almost 10% of women increased their physical activity, and consumption of fruits and vegetables.
However, among patients who followed the recommendations before diagnosis, more than half stopped being physical active, almost one third were overweight or obese, and 6% reduced their fruit and vegetable intake to less than five servings per day.
“Although women with breast cancer have reported positive changes in their health behaviors after diagnosis, there is still a wide margin of intervention, which highlights the importance of developing health promotion actions aimed specifically at this population”, the ISPUP researchers point out.
Results from the NEON-BC cohort are expected to help characterize more accurately the global burden of disease associated with breast cancer and its treatment, and to help develop strategies that minimize the impact of these conditions among survivors.
The cohort was the basis of a project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), two doctoral theses and three Master’s dissertations, and 13 publications in international scientific journals.
