Domiciliary Physiotherapy During Breast Cancer Radiation

Background: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. Its treatment, including radiotherapy (RT), can cause potential complications to be treated by the physiotherapy. Objective: To evaluate the effect of domiciliary physiotherapy on the upper limb applied during the period of radiotherapy in women submitted to surgical and radiotherapy for breast cancer. Study design: This is a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial. Methods: Thirty six volunteers were recruited from November 2009 to March 2012 and they were appraised at three different times: pre-RT, post-RT and 2 months after the end of RT. The parameters evaluated were: shoulder range of movement (ROM) and arm circumference. They were divided into two groups: CG) control group, submitted only to the assessments and SG) study group, submitted to domiciliary physiotherapy.