Table 1.
Characteristics of the population
| Total | Breast cancer treatment groups | Healthy women | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No CT | Started CT | Post neo‐adj. CT | Post adj. CT | P * | P ** | ||||||||||
| Number of women | 281 | 105 | 91 | 31 | 28 | 26 | |||||||||
| Age, mean (SD) | 54.3 | (9.4) | 57.1 | (8.7) | 52.6 | (9.9) | 51.1 | (9.3) | 54.3 | (7.8) | 0.0011 | 53.3 | (9.8) | 0.0027 | |
| Weight, mean (SD) | 72.2 | (13.9) | 73.6 | (13.6) | 71.7 | (14.0) | 71.0 | (11.3) | 74.6 | (18.4) | 0.60 | 67.3 | (11.4) | 0.24 | |
| Height, mean (SD) | 165.9 | (6.6) | 164.9 | (6.9) | 166.3 | (6.7) | 166.1 | (4.8) | 167.3 | (6.9) | 0.26 | 166.9 | (6.7) | 0.33 | |
| BMI, mean (SD) | 26.3 | (5.0) | 27.1 | (5.1) | 25.9 | (4.9) | 25.8 | (4.3) | 26.5 | (5.5) | 0.33 | 24.2 | (4.2) | 0.077 | |
| Menopausal status, n (%) | Pre | 67 | 26% | 19 | 18% | 37 | 41% | 5 | 16% | 6 | 21% | 0.0035 | n.a. | n.a. | |
| Peri | 29 | 11% | 10 | 9% | 8 | 9% | 7 | 23% | 4 | 14% | |||||
| Post | 147 | 58% | 73 | 69% | 39 | 42% | 18 | 58% | 17 | 61% | |||||
| Missing | 12 | 5% | 3 | 4% | 7 | 8% | 1 | 3% | 1 | 4% | |||||
| Days since surgery, mean (SD) | 65.2 | (49.0) | 45.5 | (12.7) | 56.8 | (22.7) | 55.9 | (48.2) | 180.1 | (50.5) | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | ||
| Days since CT end, mean (SD) | 55.1 | (44.6) | n.a. | n.a. | 76.4 | (48.2) | 27.6 | (15.4) | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | ||||
| Mastectomy, n (%) | Yes | 55 | 22% | 4 | 4% | 33 | 37% | 11 | 36% | 7 | 25% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | |
| Partial mastectomy, n (%) | Yes | 197 | 77% | 101 | 96% | 55 | 60% | 20 | 64% | 21 | 75% | ||||
| Missing | 3 | 1% | 3 | 3% | |||||||||||
| Lymph nodes dissected, n (%) | None | 11 | 4% | 10 | 9.5% | 1 | 1.1% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | |||||
| Sentinel | 147 | 58% | 76 | 72% | 48 | 52% | 14 | 45% | 9 | 32% | |||||
| Axillary | 94 | 37% | 18 | 17% | 40 | 44% | 17 | 55% | 19 | 68% | |||||
| Missing | 3 | 1% | 1 | 1% | 2 | 2% | |||||||||
| Stage, n (%) | 0 | 15 | 6% | 13 | 12% | 2 | 7% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | |||||
| 1 | 118 | 46% | 65 | 62% | 36 | 40% | 10 | 32% | 7 | 25% | |||||
| 2 | 94 | 37% | 26 | 25% | 43 | 47% | 15 | 48% | 10 | 36% | |||||
| 3 | 27 | 11% | 1 | 1% | 11 | 12% | 4 | 13% | 11 | 39% | |||||
| Missing | 1 | <1% | 1 | 1% | |||||||||||
| Taxane, n (%) | Yes | 90 | 35% | n.a. | 32 | 35% | 31 | 100% | 27 | 96% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | ||
| Missing | 1 | <1% | 1 | 1.% | |||||||||||
| Anthracycline, n (%) | Yes | 131 | 51% | n.a. | 77 | 85% | 29 | 96% | 25 | 89% | 0.23 | n.a. | n.a. | ||
| Missing | 3 | 1% | 1 | 1% | 1 | 3% | 1 | 4% | |||||||
| Herceptine treatment, n (%) | Yes | 16 | 6% | 0 | 0% | 4 | 4% | 6 | 19% | 6 | 21% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | |
| Missing | 1 | <1% | 1 | 1% | |||||||||||
| Hormone therapy, n (%) | Yes | 79 | 31% | 55 | 52% | 0 | 0% | 13 | 42% | 11 | 39% | <0.001 | n.a. | n.a. | |
| ECOG, n (%) | 0 | 222 | 87% | 93 | 89% | 79 | 87% | 27 | 87% | 23 | 82% | 0.49 | n.a. | n.a. | |
| 1 | 25 | 10% | 10 | 9% | 6 | 6% | 4 | 13% | 5 | 18% | |||||
| 2 | 1 | <1% | 1 | 1% | |||||||||||
| Missing | 7 | 3% | 1 | 1% | 6 | 6% | |||||||||
| FAQ physical fatigue, mean (SD) | 39.4 | (27.1) | 35.0 | (26.9) | 44.0 | (25.5) | 45.0 | (25.5) | 56.7 | (24.5) | <0.001 | 16.4 | (18.3) | <0.001 | |
| Depression (ADS), mean (SD) | 25.1 | (16.7) | 26.6 | (17.1) | 25.6 | (16.2) | 28.9 | (18.5) | 26.0 | (14.7) | 0.83 | 11.8 | (11.4) | <0.001 | |
| Sports before diagnosis1, n (%) none | 98 | 35% | 46 | 44% | 21 | 23% | 14 | 45% | 9 | 32% | 0.14 | 8 | 31% | 0.0045 | |
| >0–9 MET × h/week | 77 | 27% | 25 | 23% | 24 | 26% | 7 | 23% | 7 | 25% | 14 | 54% | |||
| >9–21 MET × h/week | 55 | 20% | 19 | 18% | 24 | 26% | 6 | 19% | 4 | 14% | 2 | 8% | |||
| >21 MET × h/week | 46 | 16% | 14 | 13% | 21 | 23% | 4 | 13% | 7 | 25% | |||||
| missing | 5 | 2% | 1 | 1% | 1 | 1% | 1 | 4% | 2 | 8% | |||||
| Cyclinga, n (%) | None | 98 | 35% | 38 | 36% | 28 | 31% | 14 | 45% | 10 | 36% | 0.87 | 8 | 31% | 0.26 |
| >0–1 h/week | 85 | 30% | 32 | 31% | 31 | 34% | 9 | 29% | 11 | 39% | 2 | 8% | |||
| >1–3 h/week | 60 | 21% | 22 | 21% | 20 | 22% | 6 | 19% | 3 | 11% | 9 | 34% | |||
| >3 h/week | 31 | 11% | 10 | 9% | 12 | 13% | 2 | 7% | 2 | 7% | 5 | 19% | |||
| Missing | 7 | 3% | 3 | 3% | 2 | 7% | 2 | 8% | |||||||
ADS, German depression scale based on Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale; BMI, body mass index; CT, chemotherapy; ECOG, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group; FAQ, Fatigue Assessment Questionnaire with items for physical fatigue; MET, metabolic equivalent; SD, standard deviation.
Exercise behaviour in the year before breast cancer diagnosis with self‐developed surveys abstracted from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire.
P‐value for one‐way ANOVA for continuous variables and χ 2 or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables only for breast cancer patient groups.
P‐value for one‐way ANOVA for continuous variables and χ 2 or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables for all groups.