--- title: Breast-Cancer Treatment Side Effects Affect Half of Patients description: Side effects are the price for effective cancer treatments, and in the latest report researchers say nearly half of women experience adverse effects from their therapies, which can affect their recover canonical: https://time.com/4645337/nearly-half-of-women-with-breast-cancer-report-serious-side-effects/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-24T19:55:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:42.089Z article:section: Health og:title: Nearly Half of Breast-Cancer Patients Report Severe Side Effects og:description: Side effects are the price for effective cancer treatments, and in the latest report researchers say nearly half of women experience adverse effects from their therapies, which can affect their recover og:url: https://time.com/4645337/nearly-half-of-women-with-breast-cancer-report-serious-side-effects/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt182efc5ab5386b1e/6988b6f98fd2ee31a035580f/gettyimages-183251806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3075 og:image:height: 1730 og:image:alt: Breast cancer chemotherapy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nearly Half of Breast-Cancer Patients Report Severe Side Effects twitter:description: Side effects are the price for effective cancer treatments, and in the latest report researchers say nearly half of women experience adverse effects from their therapies, which can affect their recover twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt182efc5ab5386b1e/6988b6f98fd2ee31a035580f/gettyimages-183251806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Half of Women Have Serious Side Effects From Breast-Cancer Treatment > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=f462cfae-3797-4680-808e-bfa36d07d387&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Choosing to Wait: A New Approach to Treating Breast Cancer at Its Earliest Stages [Watch (HLS stream): Choosing to Wait: A New Approach to Treating Breast Cancer at Its Earliest Stages](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qPQnIqEX.m3u8) (5:56)  _Published 2015-10-01. Colletti, 60, was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as Stage 0 breast cancer, in April 2014. But rather than immediately having surgery, Colletti opted for a new form of alternative treatment: active surveillance._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jan 24, 2017 7:55 PM UTC  "A pink breast cancer awareness ribbon and pink chemotherapy with syringe. Narrow depth of field. Reflection from plexiglass, not photoshop." "A pink breast cancer awareness ribbon and pink chemotherapy with syringe. Narrow depth of field. Reflection from plexiglass, not photoshop."Getty Images/iStockphoto  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jan 24, 2017 7:55 PM UTC Breast-cancer treatments may be effective at treating many tumors, but they come with a price. In the latest study on the side effects of these treatments, published in the journal _Cancer_, researchers led by Christopher Friese at the University of Michigan say that 42% of women who were treated for breast cancer reported severe side effects. These included nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, pain, swelling in the arms, shortness of breath, and skin irritation around the breasts during the seven months after diagnosis and following treatment with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. “As a physician, I don’t see the whole of it in terms of how patients are suffering,” says Dr. Allison Kurian, one of the study’s co-authors and associate professor of medicine at Stanford University. “I probably see only a tiny bit of it in the clinic. For me, to see that a significant number of women reported toxicity that was severe or very severe, was remarkable. It was higher than I might have thought and an important reminder to me as a clinician that these therapies are quite toxic, and we need to listen carefully to what patients may be telling us about them.” Such information could be helpful for women making decisions about their treatment. But there is little data on how extensive these side effects really are among a large group of women from different ethnic and economic backgrounds. Some experts also say that side effects may not be discussed in as much detail as treatments are — not having the full scope of information about side effects could affect women’s decisions about which treatments they choose. And there is growing appreciation that such side effects may adversely affect women’s physical health in other ways, which can affect their recovery as well as whether or not they finish their treatments. In the study, women reporting the most problems with their treatments also reported the lowest scores on overall physical functioning including fatigue, sleep problems, pain, breathing difficulty and more. About 29% of women receiving chemotherapy reported severe side effects. Those opting for to have both breasts removed also reported the highest amount of severe pain — 37% — compared with 25% of women who removed one breast and 18% of women choosing lumpectomy. This information could help women decide between mastectomy and lumpectomy, for example, since more data suggests that double mastectomies to prevent spread of the cancer to the unaffected breast may not be associated with better survival. “So for many to see that double mastectomy is associated with more severe pain, perhaps they may choose something different,” says Kurian. “Having this kind of information at the time of decisionmaking is important.” A breast-cancer diagnosis is a stressful and emotional experience, however, and making sure that treatment and side effect information is presented and considered objectively is a challenge. Many women feel as if they have to act quickly, having been trained to think that treating cancer as soon and as aggressively as possible is ideal. But even invasive cancers, such as the type the women in the study had, [don’t need to be treated within days of a diagnosis](http://time.com/4142592/with-early-breast-cancer-treatment-less-may-be-more-studies/), says Kurian. Most doctors give their patients a few weeks to a month to decide on their treatment, which may still seem too soon for some. Making sure that the information is communicated in the right way is also important, says Kurian. In the study, she found that Latina women were 30% more likely to report severe side effects than white women, which may reflect language barriers or cultural barriers to understanding some of the possible negative consequences of treatment. “It’s a sign that we really need to develop customized interventions for women to assess and manage toxicity as soon as they occur,” she says. “As well as find a way to communicate the information about side effects initially to help them make informed choices about their treatment.” “We need to continue to think carefully about the balance between benefit and risk, and make sure these are conveyed clearly to the patient to help her make the best decision for her treatment,” says Kurian. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] One of the best things about my job is that I see patients who have a potentially lethal diagnosis and I'm able to be part of what allows them to be cured of their disease. The flip side is that one of the least rewarding experiences I have Of. And when I see a patient who is so fearful and so not at peace with her own body that she feels that she has to do extraordinary things to be free of her anxiety of breast cancer. [ MUSIC ] My daughter's initial reaction was, [ MUSIC ] Mom, if it was me I'd take it out. You just get rid of it. My husband and I did a ton of research, and we reviewed studies, and all the information out there, and decided that really we don't have to have surgery. That it's not life- threatening, and I'll probably die from something else. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So if you would If you felt a nodule or [ INAUDIBLE ] I'm fortunate to be on the early side of things where most of the patients I see have very early, very treatable problems and I think that's how I got interested in DCIS, because of all the so- called cancers that we diagnose now, DCIS is the very earliest form. [ MUSIC ] Active surveillance is very new. And for many people, both on the physician's side and the patient's side, it's a scary proposition. I'm certainly not condoning it for everyone. I'm not recommending that everyone with DCIS follow a path of active surveillance. But I think it should be considered in the context of all the options that patients have. All of us have different comfort levels of how far we're willing to go to be sure we don't die of this and that other disease. But we all die of something. And we can't prevent everything. [ MUSIC ] So in April of 2014 I was diagnosed with DCIS. When they gave me the diagnosis I initially felt a lot of dread, got sick to my stomach and just thought oh no so what is this going to lead to. My daughter's initial reaction was, mom, if it was me, I'd take it out. And that was initially how she felt until we discussed it. And when we talked about the risks of surgery and radiation treatments, and some of the things that can happen with that, and the fact that these are pre- cancerous cells that may just sit there and never do anything. She came around. So, DCIS stands for ductal carcinoma in situ. And the in situ part is that the cells, the abnormal cells are contained within the ducts of the breast Once the cells break out of the ducts its called an invasive cancer, and those are the cancers that can spread to the lymph nodes and can spread to other parts of the body and eventually cause mortality. [ SOUND ] There have been a couple of very important studies that have been published lately which have shown that for the very low risk DCIS Whether you ever operate on them, whether you do a lumpectomy or whether you do a mastectomy, the patients are equally likely to not die of breast cancer. So removing both your breasts at that phase really doesn't help a woman to live longer. And I feel that for some of those patients They see mastectomy as being a way to rid themselves of anxiety. And that makes me sad. I think there are much better ways to reduce anxiety than to do a pretty major operation after which you're never really going to be the same. And the side effects that patients have in terms of discomfort with themselves. Never feeling like they're whole again. A lot of the work that I do in clinic is being with patients at probably one of the most vulnerable and scary times of their lives. And to be part of that process and to see patients through that is incredibly rewarding. The initial fear that you have I think is just because you don't know what's going to happen, but you know if you read the studies And you look at the information out there, I don't feel afraid at all. I feel great about my decision. If options were given to women, more women would choose active surveillance, but because there's no options out there, people don't know to even ask. Ask. 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