Arthralgia among women taking aromatase inhibitors: is there a shared inflammatory mechanism with co-morbid fatigue and insomnia?

IntroductionArthralgia is a common toxicity among women taking aromatase inhibitors (AIs) and can lead to premature discontinuation of therapy. We evaluated the association between arthralgia, co-morbid fatigue/insomnia and inflammatory biomarkers among women taking AIs. Methods: Women taking AIs for early stage breast cancer completed a modified version of the Brief Pain Inventory, the Brief Fatigue Inventory, the Insomnia Severity Index, and provided blood samples for simultaneous assessment of 34 inflammatory biomarkers using a Luminex kit. Two-sided t-tests were used to compare inflammatory biomarker concentrations for patients with or without moderate to severe arthralgia. Multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between comorbid arthralgia, fatigue and insomnia with identified biomarker concentrations. Results: Among 203 participants, severity of arthralgia, fatigue and insomnia significantly correlated with each other (p 
Source: Breast Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research