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# Older breast cancer survivors still carried a physical function deficit at ten years
- URL: https://www.coios.me/older-breast-cancer-survivors-still-carried-a-physical/
- Published: 2026-09-25T12:55:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T20:49:59.000Z
- Description: Among 45,530 Women's Health Initiative participants followed 15 years, women diagnosed with regional breast cancer scored 6.8 points lower on SF-36 physical function than age-matched cancer-free women at one year and 5.3 points lower at ten.
- Author: Daniel Ryan
- Tags: Healthcare today, Frailty and multimorbidity, Diet, exercise and sleep, United States, #peer-reviewed, #refines, #item, #source-2026-09

Repeated SF-36 physical function scores were compared between 8,334 women with localised or regional breast cancer and 37,196 age-matched cancer-free comparators in the Women's Health Initiative, median age 72 at diagnosis. Survivors fell sharply after diagnosis and recovered incompletely, the regional-disease deficit standing at 6.8 points at one year and 5.3 at ten, with the steepest early decline among those given chemotherapy. Deficits were larger and more sustained in women diagnosed above 70, and grip strength and walking pace moved with the questionnaire scores.

*Why it is interesting: It separates a durable treatment-related deficit from ordinary ageing, in a matched comparison rather than a survivor series.*

Source

[JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 23 September 2026](https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djag292?ref=coios.me)

DOI

10.1093/jnci/djag292

Type

Peer-reviewed article

Design

Prospective cohort, Women's Health Initiative, n=45,530 (8,334 survivors), repeated SF-36 over 15 years, with grip strength and walking pace in a subset of 3,015

Verdict

Refines prior evidence

Driver

[Frailty and multimorbidity](https://www.coios.me/d-frailty-multimorbidity/)

Driver

[Diet, exercise and sleep](https://www.coios.me/d-diet-activity/)