Quantitative and Clinical Description of Postural Instability in Women With Breast Cancer Treated With Taxane Chemotherapy

Abstract 

Wampler MA, Topp KS, Miaskowski C, Byl NN, Rugo HS, Hamel K. Quantitative and clinical description of postural instability in women with breast cancer treated with taxane chemotherapy.

Objective

To describe the postural control of women who received taxane chemotherapy for treatment of breast cancer using quantitative and clinically feasible measures.

Design

Prospective descriptive study.

Setting

University-based comprehensive cancer center.

Participants

Twenty women who completed taxane treatment for breast cancer and 20 healthy controls participated in this study.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

Two quantitative measures of postural control were used, Sensory Organization Test (SOT) and center of pressure (COP) velocities. Two clinically feasible measures of postural control were used, the Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale (FABS) and Timed Up & Go (TUG) test.

Results

Compared with healthy controls, women with breast cancer had poorer postural control on all of the outcome measures. FABS and TUG scores correlated moderately with SOT and COP scores.

Conclusions

After taxane chemotherapy, women with breast cancer show significantly increased postural instability compared with matched controls. Clinically feasible measures of postural control correlated with quantitative tests. These results suggest that these clinical measures may be useful to screen patients to determine who may benefit from rehabilitation.

Key Words: Chemotherapy, Docetaxel, Equilibrium, Musculoskeletal system, Neoplasms, Paclitaxel, Peripheral neuropathies, Rehabilitation