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Fatigue After Treatment
By Lydia Fong
Breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation frequently suffer fatigue. Many women assume that it will decrease as time goes by, but research has found that for a quarter to a third of women, fatigue often persists even six months after treatment has ended. A study published in Cancer on October 15 showed that half a year after finishing treatment, women who had undergone both chemotherapy and radiation reported being almost 20 percent more tired than women with no cancer history. Researchers are trying to figure out why. Factors that may increase fatigue include lack of physical activity and immune system deficiency, says psychologist Paul Jacobsen, Ph.D., lead author of the paper and director of the Health Outcomes and Behavior Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. “Maintaining physical activity would be one way of trying to prevent it,” he says. “Walking is an excellent form of exercise.”
