The efficacy of exercise therapy in reducing shoulder pain related to breast cancer: a systematic review.

Purpose: Recent research indicates that physiotherapy interventions, such as exercise and manual therapy, may be effective in decreasing the frequency of side effects linked with breast cancer treatment, including fatigue, pain, nausea, and decreased quality of life. This systematic review aims to determine the efficacy of exercise therapy in reducing shoulder pain related to breast cancer treatment and to identify outcome measures that can be used to assess shoulder pain in this population.

Methods: A systematic review of the current literature was conducted using portals such as the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE (1996 to April 2011), and Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED) (1985 to April 2011).