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.