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Received Feb 10, 2017; Revised Jun 15, 2017; Accepted Jun 28, 2017
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
The term “cancer” refers to a set of more than 100 diseases. Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with an incidence of around 14.1 million cases and approximately 8.2 million deaths in 2012 [1]. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women and in 2012 presented approximately 1.7 million cases worldwide [1]. Breast cancer aetiology is not fully understood, but it seems to have multifactorial causes involving reproductive and endocrine factors such as nulliparity, hormonal history, and the use of hormone therapy (contraceptive and hormone replacement). Other factors have also been associated with breast cancer, such as exposure to ionizing radiation, use of alcohol, high-calorie diets, physical inactivity, and obesity [1–3].
Breast cancer treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy, which can be used alone or in combination. Although aimed at a cure, cancer treatment has numerous deleterious side effects, diminishing patient quality of life. It has been reported in the literature that treatment can induce lymphedema [4–6], sedentary behaviour [7, 8], decreased aerobic fitness and muscle strength [9, 10], fatigue [11, 12], weight gain and changes in body composition [13], decrease in bone mineral density [14], high inflammatory profile [15, 16], immunosuppression [17, 18], peripheral neuropathy [19], changes in the perception of body image, anxiety, and depression [20–22]. These factors are commonly associated with treatment and can cause a downward spiral, reducing physical function and worsening the...