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Is there an association between breast cancer and incident adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder? A retrospective cohort study from Germany

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Abstract

Purpose

Preliminary data suggest that women with breast cancer are at particularly high risk of adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential association between breast cancer and adhesive capsulitis in adults from Germany.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study included all women aged ≥ 18 years who were diagnosed for the first time with breast cancer in one of 1,274 general practices in Germany between January 2000 and December 2018 (index date). Women without breast cancer were matched (1:1) to those with breast cancer using a propensity score based on age at the index date, index year, and the average number of medical consultations per year during the follow-up. In women without breast cancer, the index date was a randomly selected visit date between 2000 and 2018. The association between breast cancer and the 10-year incidence of adhesive capsulitis was studied using Kaplan–Meier curves and a Cox regression model adjusted for age and several comorbidities.

Results

There were 52,524 women included in this study (mean [SD] age 64.2 [12.9] years). The 10-year incidence of adhesive capsulitis was 3.6% in both the group with and the group without breast cancer (log-rank p-value = 0.317). The Cox regression analysis further showed no significant association between breast cancer and adhesive capsulitis (HR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.86–1.08).

Conclusion

In this sample of women from Germany, breast cancer was not significantly associated with adhesive capsulitis. Although the present preliminary findings are reassuring, general practitioners should regularly assess shoulder function in breast cancer survivors.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research and Development Unit, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, CIBERSAM, ISCIII, Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 42, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

    Louis Jacob, Ai Koyanagi & Josep Maria Haro

  2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Lariboisière-Fernand Widal Hospital, AP-HP, University Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Louis Jacob

  3. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain

    Ai Koyanagi

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jae Il Shin

  5. Centre for Health, Performance and Wellbeing, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

    Lee Smith

  6. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany

    Niklas Gremke & Matthias Kalder

  7. Epidemiology, IQVIA, Unterschweinstiege 2-14, 60549, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Karel Kostev

Authors
  1. Louis Jacob
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Contributions

Louis Jacob contributed to the design of the study, managed the literature searches, wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and corrected the manuscript. Ai Koyanagi, Josep Maria Haro, Jae Il Shin, Lee Smith, Niklas Gremke, and Matthias Kalder corrected the manuscript. Karel Kostev contributed to the design of the study, performed the statistical analyses, and corrected the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karel Kostev.

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Ethical approval

German law allows the use of anonymous electronic medical records for research purposes under certain conditions. According to this legislation, it is not necessary to obtain informed consent from patients or approval from a medical ethics committee for this type of observational study that contains no directly identifiable data.

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Jacob, L., Koyanagi, A., Haro, J.M. et al. Is there an association between breast cancer and incident adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder? A retrospective cohort study from Germany. Support Care Cancer 31, 347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07808-1

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