美国加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校科研人员1月9日公布的一项研究结果显示，在那些成功治愈乳腺癌的女性中，有三分之一的人会在自己首次被确诊患有这种疾病后长期经受身体疲劳的折磨，持续时间最多可达10年之久。

    据路透社1月9日报道， 该项研究的对象为763名乳腺癌患者，研究报告已刊登在美国癌症协会主办的《癌症》杂志网络版上。研究发现，约有34％的被调查者表示，她们在被确诊后曾经出现过5年到10年不等的明显疲劳症状；21％的人宣称在确诊后既有过短期的疲劳感（1年到5年），也有过相对较长时期的疲劳感（5年到10年）。

    该校琼森癌症研究中心的研究人员朱莉·鲍瓦尔说：“人们现在已经意识到，疲劳感是乳腺癌及其治疗方法所带给患者的最为常见且最令人沮丧的副作用之一，它可以在很大程度上影响到一个女人的生活质量。当然，对这些人来说也并非毫无希望可言，通过本次研究我们发现，即使这种疲劳感在被确诊后的10年里一直存在，你也仍然可以设法将其减轻或消除。”

    研究还发现，那些患有抑郁症或心血管疾病的女性同样很容易出现疲劳症状，而对于同时接受放疗和化疗的女性患者来说，情况也是如此。

    （国际在线独家资讯 张咏）

本稿件为国际在线专稿，媒体转载请注明稿件来源和译者姓名。

    Approximately one third of women treated for breast cancer experience fatigue for the first five years after treatment, and for about two thirds of those, the fatigue will persist, the results of a long-term study indicate.

    "The message is that most women are going to be doing very well, but for those who have persistent fatigue, we think there is an underlying biological syndrome," co-investigator Dr. Patricia A. Ganz told Reuters Health.

    Ganz, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and her associates previously reported that 35 percent of 1,957 women who were diagnosed between with early-stage breast carcinoma between 1994 and 1997 experienced fatigue for the first five years after treatment.

    For their current study, published online in the medical journal Cancer, they recontacted the same women in 1998 who were at least five years postdiagnosis. A total of 763 women who remained cancer-free completed the second set of questionnaires.

    The results showed that 34 percent were classified as being fatigued. Among those classified as fatigued during the first survey, 63 percent continued to score in the fatigued range.

    Further analyses indicated that depression, pain and heart disease were significant long-term predictors of fatigue, as was treatment with combined radiation and chemotherapy compared with either treatment alone.

    "When we intensively studied the biological mechanisms of fatigue in smaller groups, we found that women with persistent fatigue have abnormalities" in markers of inflammation, Ganz said. "So it appears they may have some underlying predisposing inflammatory condition" causing the fatigue that is triggered or exacerbated when they develop cancer.

    "Like any other subjective complaint," she added, "we have to believe the patient when she complains of fatigue. Then look for medical problems that may be amenable to intervention, such as anemia or a thyroid condition. If they are on a blood pressure medication, try to put them on meds that don't contribute to fatigue."

    "And clearly a careful assessment of depression and management of pain are very important," she added. "If we can get that under control their energy may improve."