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BEAUTY and the breast: is adjuvant chemotherapy the right time for a beauty boost? Lessons learned from a large randomized controlled trial

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Abstract

Purpose

Beauty care (BTC) is offered at many cancer hospitals having a great uptake among patients. Nevertheless, its benefits in the Quality of life (QoL) of cancer survivors have not been assessed so far.

Methods

Our study aims to determine whether BTC improves patients’ QoL related to their body image measured by the BRBI scale of the QLQ-BR23 questionnaire at the end of adjuvant chemotherapy, after breast cancer (BC) surgery. The BEAUTY study is a prospective, randomized, controlled intervention trial. The following patient-reported outcomes were filled before initiation of chemotherapy (T1) and after their last cycle (T2): EORTC QLQ-C30, QLQ-BR23, and Body Image Scale (BIS). Primary objective was improvement in the BIS of BR23 (BRBI). A qualitative assessment of patients' experience was performed at each cycle through a relevant questionnaire.

Results

In total, 269 (67%) patients filled BRBI at T1 and T2. Mean BRBI scores substantially decreased between T1 and T2 and were not different with or without BTC (p = 0.88). Qualitative assessment suggests impact of BTC in physical well-being and avoids thoughts related to the disease.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of patients have a poor body image and chemotherapy induced a substantial degradation of BRBI scores. Although BTC does not seem to impact BRBI scores, the qualitative assessment suggests some benefit of BTC in other domains. Our study highlights the need to assess patients-perceived body image and build tailored interventions at this critical phase of their disease and generates hypothesis for the impact of BTC among BC patients.

Clinical trial registration The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under the NCT01459003 number since October 25, 2011

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Abbreviations

BC:

Breast cancer

BI:

Body image

BIS:

Body Image Scale

BRBI:

Breast-related body image

BTC:

Beauty care

EORTC:

European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer

IEO:

European Institute of Oncology

QLQ-BR23:

Quality of Life Questionnaire-Breast 23 items

QLQ-C30:

Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 items

QoL:

Quality of life

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Funding

This study was supported by an unrestricted grant from the L’Oréal Foundation. The L'Oréal Corporate Foundation promotes beauty and well-being treatments in medical and social settings, carried out by socio-aesthetic therapists to accompany the road to recovery and rehabilitation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Oncology Department, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Mahasti Saghatchian, Amal Ghouadni, Suzette Delaloge & Ines Vaz-Luis

  2. Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Benjamin Lacas & Gabrielle Tergemina Clain

  3. INSERM U1018, CESP, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France

    Benjamin Lacas

  4. Social Sciences Research Unit, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Cécile Charles, Diane Boinon & Philippe Amiel

  5. Supportive Care Department, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Sarah Dauchy

  6. Breast Cancer Unit, Institut de Cancérologie Gustave Roussy, 114, rue Edouard Vaillant, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Mahasti Saghatchian

Authors
  1. Mahasti Saghatchian
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  2. Benjamin Lacas
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  3. Cécile Charles
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  10. Philippe Amiel
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Contributions

MS, BL, CC, Su D, and Sa D. participated in the design of the study. MS, AG, DB, IV, and Su D. provided data for the study. MS, BL, CC, GT, DB, SD, and IV performed the analyses and the interpretation of the data. MS, GT, IV, and PA drafted the manuscript, which has been reviewed and approved in its final form by all other authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mahasti Saghatchian.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The local ethics committee of the hospital and the regional French Ethics Committee approved this study. Biomedical research: V. Gajdos, A. Laplanche, R. De Beaurepaire, and F. Hirsch. Pharmacist: C. Astoul. Ethic: J. Carre. Psychologist: S. Schwab. Social worker: A. Petit. Jurists: F. Boissy and V.A. Lafoy. Associations: A. Labbe and M. Zarka.

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Saghatchian, M., Lacas, B., Charles, C. et al. BEAUTY and the breast: is adjuvant chemotherapy the right time for a beauty boost? Lessons learned from a large randomized controlled trial. Qual Life Res 31, 723–732 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02947-6

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