Cancer Rehabilitation: Impact on Breast Cancer Survivors’ Work Ability and Health-Related Quality of Life

Background: Breast cancer survivors (BCSs) report persistent, diminished ability to work, and decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Cancer rehabilitation interventions (physical therapy or occupational therapy [PT/OT]) aim to improve these outcomes, but little is known about their impact in the community. Methods: This retrospective, pre-post, uncontrolled study examined cases of younger BCSs (age <65 years) who attended cancer-specialized PT/OT over a 2-year period. Outcomes and covariates (age, race, US region, payer type, number of visits, length of care [weeks]) were extracted from electronic medical records. Patient-reported outcomes were overall-Work Ability Score (WAS overall ), physical-WAS (WAS physical ), and mental-WAS (WAS mental ) and PROMIS Global Physical Health (GPH), Global Mental Health (GMH), Physical Function (PF), and Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities (SRA). We used linear mixed effect models to examine pre- to post-rehabilitation change overall, and separately, while controlling for covariates. Results: PT/OT cases (N PT =758; N OT =140) had a mean [SD] age of 51.39 [8.49] years and attended approximately 12 visits (IQR, 8.0–19.0) over 10.71 weeks (IQR, 6.14–17.00). Overall, work ability outcomes (WAS overall : +1.79; WAS physical : +0.78; WAS mental : +0.47; all P <.001) and HRQoL outcomes improved significantly (GPH: +5.38; GMH: +2.90; PF: +5.17; SRA: +5.83; all P <.001), and average change on each HRQoL outcome exceeded the minimal important change (2 points). Outcome scores were similar at each timepoint for both PT and OT cases (all P >.05) and both groups improved significantly (all P <.01). Conclusions: In this large study of the impact of cancer-specialized, community-based PT and OT, younger BCSs reported significant improvement in ability to work and HRQoL. Although more research is needed, these findings suggest improved access to PT/OT could improve work ability and HRQoL for younger BCSs.