Table 2.

A list of reviews covering local, systemic treatments and side-effects and quality of life in breast cancer patients (2008–2018)

Authors [References]	Year	Main focus	Description/analysis	No. of databases	No. of included studies	Performed QA	Risk of bias assessment	Result(s)
Lemieux et al. [27]	2008	Effects of Chemotherapy-induced alopecia on QOL	Review	5	38	No	No	Hair loss consistently ranked amongst the most troublesome side effects, was described as distressing, and may affect the body image
Cella and Fallowfiel [28]	2008	Side-effects of endocrine therapy and QOL	Review	NA	6	No	No	Starting with better QOL, which should lead to better adherence, will result in better patient outcomes
Buijs et al. [29]	2008	Endocrine treatments for breast cancer and HRQOL	Review	NA	NA	No	No	HRQOL mostly is severely influenced by chemotherapy and part of these symptoms may be lasting, especially when associated with the induction of premature menopause. The varying side effect profiles of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors did not lead to significant difference in overall HRQOL
Pockaj et al. [30]	2009	QOL after breast surgery	Review	NA	NA	No	No	Better preoperative counseling, informed decision-making, and appropriate interventions will lead to improved QOL
Reimer and Gerber [31]	2010	Impact of local or systemic treatments on QOL in the elderly early-breast cancer patients	Review	PubMed	18	No	No	Overall QOL was maintained or improved
Devi et al. [32]	2011	QOL of women during and up to ten years after treatment for breast cancer	Systematic review	9	11 qualitative studies	Yes	No	Breast cancer diagnosis and its treatment can have a significant effect on several domains of women’s QOL
Pinto and de Azambuja [33]	2011	Symptoms in BCS	Review	NA	NA	No	No	The most common symptoms affecting BCS were fatigue, insomnia, depression, cognitive dysfunction, reproductive and menopausal symptoms and lymphedema
Howard-Anderson et al. [34]	2012	QOL, menopausal symptoms and fertility concerns, and behavioral health outcomes in younger patients	Systematic review	PubMed	28	No	No	Younger women experienced concerns on premature menopause, menopausal symptoms and infertility that had a role in the level of distress after treatment. Health outcomes in younger ones include weight gain and physical inactivity
Kaviani et al. [35]	2013	Type of surgery and QOL	Narrative review	NA	NA	No	No	QOL had a better score for oncoplastic breast surgery in comparison with mastectomy or BCT
Orsaria et al. [36]	2014	Nodal status assessment and QOL	Review	NA	NA	No	No	Quality results in breast cancer surgery need to generate oncological safety devoid of complications through renewed clinical experience
Tsoi et al. [37]	2014	Tissue-expander/implant vs. autologous abdominal tissue breast reconstruction	Systematic review	5	15	Yes	Yes	There is some weak evidence that tissue-expander/implant reconstruction becomes a less favorable approach in terms of patient satisfaction after mastectomy
Taghian et al. [38]	2014	Impact of lymphedema on QOL	Review	PubMed	NA	No	No	Lymphedema remains a significant QOL issue which affected woman’s physical, psychological, and emotional well-being
Sodergren et al. [39]	2015	The side effects associated with targeted therapies used in the adjuvant and metastatic settings for HER2+	Systematic review	5	18	No	No	Compared with conventional cytotoxics, targeted therapies are delivered over longer periods of time and present unique and often extensive side-effect profiles. Diarrhoea and skin rash as particularly prevalent anti-HER2 inhibitor side effects
Kameo and Sawada [40]	2016	QOL and adverse reactions of chemotherapy	Integrative review	5	50	NA	NA	Multidisciplinary and thinking on the individual vulnerabilities should be considered when evaluating adverse reaction and QOL
Mioranza et al. [41]	2016	The impact of adjuvant endocrine therapy in early breast cancer on QOL	Review	NA	NA	No	No	Impact of adjuvant endocrine therapies on HRQOL was not comparable since they used different QOL instruments
Razdan et al. [42]	2016	Quality of life among patients after bilateral prophylactic mastectomy	Systematic review	6	22	Yes	No	Post-BPM, patients are satisfied with the outcomes and report high psychosocial well-being and positive body image. Sexual well-being and somatosensory function are most negatively affected. Vulnerability, psychological distress and preoperative cancer distress are significant negative predictors of quality of life and body image post-BPM
Chalasani [43]	2017	Optimizing QOL in patients with hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer	Review	NA	NA	No	No	Patients with HR-positive disease may receive maximum clinical benefit from endocrine therapy while optimizing QOL
Garrido-Oyarzun and Castelo-Branco [44]	2017	Use of hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms and QOL in survivors	Review	NA	NA	No	No	The management of menopausal symptoms and QOL of patients treated for breast cancer remains an important problem without an optimal solution
Marta et al. [45]	2017	QOL in patients treated with radiation therapy	Systematic review	PubMed	353	No	No	Significant benefit in HRQOL was often reported when a positive primary outcome was reported
Zhou et al. [46]	2017	Impact of endocrine monotherapy and in combination with targeted therapy on QOL	Systematic review	3 databases and key conferences	11	No	No	Users of both treatments experienced similar QOL in the first-line and ET-failure setting relative to patients on ET mono. Moreover, these users experienced better QOL outcomes in some domains in the ET-failure setting relative to ET mono users
Mileski et al. [47]	2017	QOL considerations during cancer treatment in invasive ductal carcinoma patients	Systematic review	PubMed	9	No	No	The most prevalent positive QOL factors included patient expectations, decreased side effects, and increased survival rate. The most prevalent negative QOL factors included treatment, specific side effects and decreased quality of life
Platt and Zhong [48]	2017	Patient-centered breast reconstruction based on health-related QOL evidence	Review	NA	NA	No	No	Both immediate and delayed breast reconstruction increased satisfaction and QOL after reconstruction, and both groups have reported similar satisfaction and QOL scores at long-term follow-up
Rivera et al. [49]	2018	Chemotherapy-associated peripheral neuropathy	Systematic review	4	60	Yes	No	Neuropathic symptoms persisted in 11.0% to more than 80% of participants at one to three years following treatment. There is a paucity of data describing persistent PN in ESBC patients
Xiao et al. [50]	2018	Effects of adjuvant endocrine therapy on the QOL of post-menopausal women with non-metastatic ER+	Systematic review	3	13	Yes	No	Most studies found no differences between tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitor groups in terms of global QOL. The QOL of post-menopausal women is unlikely to be adversely affected by long-term use of adjuvant endocrine therapy
Yee et al. [51]	2018	Radiation-induced skin toxicity in breast cancer patients	Systematic review	NA	96	Yes	No	Methods including simultaneous integrated boost, accelerated partial breast irradiation, and prone positioning may cause less radiation dermatitis than conventional treatments
Cheng et al. [52]	2018	QOL of elderly patients with solid tumors undergoing adjuvant cancer therapy	Systematic review	5	4	Yes	Yes	Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy may not have detrimental effects on QOL in most elderly patients with solid tumors
Muller et al. [53]	2018	Impact of manual lymphatic drainage on the HRQOL	Systematic review	6	8	Yes	Yes	No studies reported reductions in HRQOL, or severe adverse events after MLD
Jeffs et al. [54]	2018	Effectiveness of decongestive treatments on excess arm volume and patient-centered outcomes in women with early breast cancer-related arm lymphedema	Systematic review	3	7	Yes	Yes	Weak evidence for the impact of decongestive lymphedema treatment did not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the most effective treatment to be offered when patients with early breast cancer first present for treatment

QA quality appraisal, NA not available, QOL quality of life, HRQO health-related quality of life, BPM body image post, ET endocrine therapy, BCT breast conserving therapy, HER_2 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, RCTs randomized clinical trials, BCS breast cancer survivors, MLD impact of manual lymphatic drainage