The Methods of Postural Assessment used for Breast Cancer: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Asymmetry and postural changes can be triggered after breast cancer treatment, which is the most common type of cancer among women. The posture disorders, which can often be ignored can cause different pathologies of the musculoskeletal system. Moreover, these may adversely affect psychology and body image. Cancer patients are a most sensitive group though cancer treatments have many side effects such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. One of the most common side effects is postural changes which needs to be assessed carefully and detailly in all individuals. There are several studies on postural changes in breast cancer survivors in the literature; thus, various postural evaluations and different treatment methods have been used. However, there is no consensus on the gold standard evaluation method or a comparison study of the reliability of the methods in this patient group. The aim of this narrative review is to contribute to the literature while discussing which method could be preferred by summarizing the methods of postural assessment used for breast cancer. In accordance with this purpose, comprehensive searches were made using different keywords in different electronic databases such as PUBMED, Google Scholar, and EBSCO. As a result of the search, evaluation and treatment studies using different evaluation methods for posture in breast cancer were determined and examined. In our study, the advantages and disadvantages of all these methods are summarized in order to contribute to clinical practice of this subject, owing to the fact that there are limited data in the literature.