2026 Volume 4 Pages 8-14
Breast cancer care has increasingly shifted toward the long-term management of treatment-related symptoms and the preservation of physical, psychological, and social functioning across survivorship. Rehabilitation in breast cancer care has traditionally focused on postoperative upper-limb dysfunction and breast cancer-related lymphedema; however, its scope has expanded to include persistent postsurgical pain, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, cancer-related fatigue, cardiotoxicity, immune-related adverse events, and functional impairments associated with recurrence or metastasis. This review summarizes rehabilitation assessment, intervention, and risk management across treatment phases, including the perioperative period, during and after chemotherapy, during endocrine and immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies, and the recurrent and palliative phases. In each phase, physiotherapists should consider treatment status, systemic condition, physical and psychological function, pain, fatigue, neurological symptoms, and cardiopulmonary symptoms, while monitoring red flags and adverse events. Multidisciplinary collaboration is essential for providing individualized exercise therapy and self-management support tailored to patients’ symptoms, goals, and risks. Establishing rehabilitation systems that provide continuous support in outpatient and community settings may contribute to treatment continuation, maintenance or improvement of quality of life, and sustained work and social participation among patients with breast cancer.
