Psychosocial interventions as part of breast cancer rehabilitation programs? Results from a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review aimed to determine the effectiveness of psychoeducation, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and social support interventions used in the rehabilitation of breast cancer (BC) patients.Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search to identify randomised controlled trials of female BC patients who underwent different psychosocial interventions during or after primary cancer treatment. The methodological quality of all studies was independently assessed by two reviewers. Studies with low quality, less than 20 participants in each group, patients with metastatic cancer, data not presented separately for BC and studies that included other cancer types were excluded.Results: Among 9617 identified studies, only 18 RCTs published between 1999 and 2008, including 3272 patients were finally included in this systematic evaluation. Outcome measures were categorised into quality of life (QoL), fatigue, mood, health behaviour and social function. Six trials examined psychoeducation had inconsistent results, both during and after the primary treatment. Seven trials examined the effect of CBT, four of which given after primary treatment (range 6-12 weeks) demonstrated improvements in QoL; the other three CBT studies given during primary treatment (range 9-20 weeks) had inconsistencies. Five studies addressed social support and showed no conclusive impacts of this intervention.Conclusions: Limited documentation exists on the efficacy of psychosocial rehabilitation interventions among BC patients. However, we found that patients might have QoL benefits from CBT given after primary BC treatment. More documentation is needed regarding the effects of CBT during primary treatment and the effects of psychoeducation and social support.

Associations among baseline variables, treatment-related factors and health-related quality of life 2 years after breast cancer surgery

“…There are only a few studies evaluating psychosocial interventions as breast cancer rehabilitation programs; however, psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral therapy and social and emotional support may be beneficial for improving QOL [52].…”

Social support and quality of life among lung cancer patients: a systematic review

“…Differences in levels of QOL and in strength of associations between QOL and social support indicate that social support-QOL relationships should be analyzed in a context of a specific type of cancer. Therefore, in line with previous systematic reviews evaluating psychosocial predictors of QOL among cancer patients [15], the present review focuses on the associations observed for one type of cancer. In particular, we investigated lung cancer, which is among the most common cancer among men, increasing in prevalence among women [16], causing functional limitations more frequently than several other types of cancer [14], and accounting for the largest number of cancer-related deaths in the European Union [16].…”

La intervención psicológica en pacientes oncológicos: una revisión de la literatura (2000-2014)

“…Los descriptores utilizados para este fin fueron: "cancer and quality of life", "cancer and quality of life and review", "cancer and psychological intervention" y "cancer and psychological intervention and review". Además, con el objetivo de abarcar otros trabajos, incluso previos al año 2000, se han tenido en cuenta distintas revisiones publicadas por otros autores (5,7,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) . La revisión se realizó partiendo de los artículos originales, escritos en inglés y español y de los resúmenes ofrecidos en las bases de datos, en los que se especificase el procedimiento y la muestra del estudio.…”