Design and Evaluation of the Effects of a Physical Therapy Program With Digital Support in Patients With Breast Cancer

Overview

Breast cancer surgery usually results in reduced range of motion of the shoulder joint, weakness of the musculature and altered scapular kinematics during movement. These factors limit activities of daily living, so rehabilitation exercises help to restore function after shoulder surgery. Women with breast cancer often have a life conditioned by the sequelae or morbidity secondary to the treatment of the disease and, despite the high cure rate, many patients are unable to regain their initial quality of life. Cancer therapies can leave physical, psychological and psychosocial sequelae, which may manifest themselves or persist even years after the end of treatment. For all these reasons, patients who have undergone cancer treatment need physical rehabilitation as well as psychological and social care to support them in their new stage of life, and to optimise the rehabilitation programme, it is necessary to identify each patient's individual needs, The digital support proposed in this study enables the development of a physiotherapy programme for patients with breast cancer in a situation of health crisis, which includes providing assistance, information, accompaniment, help and treatment to these patients in a comprehensive way, based on the biopsychosocial model.

DESIGN: Single-centre, assessor-blinded, parallel-group, randomised controlled clinical trial. METHODS: The study will be carried out at the Ramon y Cajal hospital with 92 patients diagnosed and operated on for breast cancer. Patients who come to the consultation of the rehabilitation doctors will be assessed, considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Those who may be candidates will be informed about the study and referred to the physiotherapy department where the treatment orders for these patients will be received and an appointment will be made. This is the start of the recruitment phase. Those who meet the criteria and agree to participate in the study will be assigned an identification code and will be randomised into the two groups, the intervention group and the conventional treatment group. Patients who do not meet the inclusion criteria or refuse to participate in the study will receive conventional treatment. A 6-month pilot study will be conducted to better define patient identification, inclusion criteria, recruitment and adjustment of the intervention if required. Once the pilot study is completed, the intervention clinical trial will begin. A first analysis of all variables will be performed after the intervention phase of the trial, 6 weeks after inclusion in the study. An interim analysis will also be performed at 3 months in which the same variables as at 6 weeks will be assessed. This will be the main analysis of the study. The final analysis will be carried out 6 months after inclusion in the study, and this will conclude the follow-up phase.