Does a rehabilitation program improve quality of life in breast cancer patients?

To evaluate the effect of a rehabilitation program on quality of life in breast cancer patients. Fifty-seven patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy, had finished chemotherapy and radiotherapy and received hormone therapy were selected and randomly assighned into case and control groups. Control group was under medical care and the case group in addition to medical care received a rehabilitation program (physiotherapy, education and individual counseling) for two months. Quality of life was measured by the EORTC QLQ C30 before one week and 3 months after rehabilitation in both groups. Before intervention there were statistically significant differences in physical (P< 0.001) and emotional functioning (P= 0.02) in cases compared to control group, while no other significant differences were observed in other scale. One week after the program, differences among two groups in 6 scales were significant indicating a better condition in intervention group. Three months after the intervention the cases showed a statistical meaningful improvments in 11 scales. Rehabilitation programs might improve the quality of life after mastectomy in breast cancer patients.