Researchers Reveal Pain Lingers for Years Following Breast Cancer Surgery

Health Day U.S. News is reporting that Danish researchers conducted a study to determine how many women experienced lingering pain after undergoing breast cancer surgery. The information that they found was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and it indicated that nearly half of the women who were involved with the study reported that they continued to feel lingering pain years after they underwent breast cancer surgery.

Previous studies that had been conducted perpetuated the belief that pain would often for linger for those who have received breast cancer surgery treatment. However, until the Danish researchers performed their most recent study, which included more than 3,000 female participants, there had never been a study that had been this elaborate and detailed.

Dr. Henrik Kehlet, the study's senior author, constructed a team that sent in-depth questionnaires to 3,253 women in Denmark who had received breast cancer treatment in 2005 and/or 2006, according to Health Day U.S. News. Of those who were polled, a staggering 47 percent of the women reported that they experienced pain in at least one part of their anatomy to this day.

Dr. Kehlet clarified the types of women who were most likely to experience chronic pain, stating, "There are multiple mechanisms to explain the risk of chronic pain such as young age, risk of nerve damage during axillary dissection, radiation therapy or a general pain hyper-responsiveness in some patients."