Musculoskeletal pain and health-related quality of life among breast cancer patients treated with aromatase inhibitors

This study aims to examine the associations between musculoskeletal pain and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) among breast cancer patients on aromatase inhibitors (AIs) and women without a history of breast cancer. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 68 breast cancer patients on AIs for an average of 3.5 years and 137 postmenopausal women without a history of cancer. Musculoskeletal pain was assessed using a 10-cm visual analog scale; HR-QOL was examined using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) health survey. Linear regression was used to estimate the associations between pain and HR-QOL in both groups. Approximately 64 % of the breast cancer patients and women in the comparison group reported musculoskeletal pain. Among women with breast cancer, those with pain had significantly lower HR-QOL scores in the physical (52.2 vs. 42.6; p < 0.001) and mental (52.7 vs. 45.5; p = 0.01) component summary scores compared with those without pain. In the comparison group, pain was associated with significantly lower scores in the physical (55.4 vs. 46.0; p < 0.001), but not the mental, component summary score (52.1 vs. 52.4; p = 0.82). The significant associations between pain and HR-QOL persisted after confounder adjustment in both groups. Among women with similar severity of pain, breast cancer patients reported significantly lower HR-QOL in the mental summary component compared with the women in the comparison group. Among breast cancer patients, musculoskeletal pain adversely affects both mental and physical components of HR-QOL. Preventing or treating AI-associated musculoskeletal pain may improve overall HR-QOL among breast cancer patients treated with AIs.