Breast Cancer Fatigue Often Lingers

Years after treatment for breast cancer, many women still face fatigue, especially those with depression or other health problems, a new study shows.

The study, published in Cancer, included 763 women who were disease-free survivors and had been treated for early breast cancer.

Nearly a third of the women (34%) reported fatigue 5 to 10 years after diagnosis. More than one in five had also noted fatigue in an earlier survey.

Fatigue was most common in women with low incomes, depression, and conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, and arthritis, the study shows.

Survivors who report fatigue should be carefully screened for depression, write the researchers. They included Julienne Bower, PhD, of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

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