Effects of physiotherapy methods in post-operative women with breast cancer: systematic review with meta-analysis

Abstract Introduction Breast cancer is characterized by abnormal, disordered and rapid proliferation of breast tissue cells; however, early diagnosis and advances in treatment allow greater chances of a good treatment. Objective To present the effects of physical therapy in postoperative breast cancer patients. Methods This is a systematic review of the literature, with a selection of articles published in the PubMed, SCOPUS, Cochrane, Web of Science and SciELO databases. Results A total of 1,380 publications were found in the search in the databases following the proposed research methodology. After using the selecion criteria, six studies (four randomized clinical trials and two clinical trials) were included in this systematic review. Of these studies, three provided data for the meta-analysis. The results of this meta-analysis showed that the abduction variable did not differ significantly (p = 0.11; standardized mean difference [SMD] = 1.48; 95% CI [-0.35 to 3.3]), as well as the flexion variable did not show differences (p = 0.14; SMD = 1.21; 95% CI [0.41 to 2.82]). Conclusion According to this meta-analysis, no results were obtained that demonstrated improvements in physical therapy interventions in women after breast cancer surgery in the range of motion of the upper limbs.