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Prevention of quality-of-life deterioration with light therapy is associated with changes in fatigue in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy

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Abstract

Purpose

During chemotherapy, women with breast cancer not only experience poor quality of life (QOL), they also have little exposure to bright light, which has been shown to be associated with depression, fatigue, and poor sleep in other chronic illnesses. This study examined whether increased light exposure would have a positive effect on QOL.

Methods

Thirty-nine women with stage I–III breast cancer scheduled to receive ≥4 cycles of chemotherapy were randomized to a bright white light (BWL, n = 23) or dim red light (DRL, n = 16) treatment group. Data were collected before (baseline) and during cycles 1 and 4 of chemotherapy. Light was administered via a light box (Litebook®, Ltd.). QOL was assessed with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ).

Results

Compared with baseline, the DRL group demonstrated significant decline in QOL during the treatment weeks of both cycles (all ps < 0.02), whereas the BWL group had no significant decline (all ps > 0.05). Mixed model analyses revealed that there was a group-by-time interaction for FOSQ at the treatment week of cycle 4, and this interaction was mediated by fatigue.

Conclusion

The data suggest that increased exposure to bright light during chemotherapy may prevent the decline in QOL via preventing the increase in fatigue.

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Abbreviations

QOL:

Quality of life

UCSD:

University of California, San Diego

BWL:

Bright white light

DRL:

Dim red light

FACT-B:

Functional assessment of cancer therapy-breast

FOSQ:

Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire

CES-D:

Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale

TST:

Total sleep time

NAPTIME:

Total nap time

C1TW:

Chemotherapy treatment week of cycle 1

C1RW:

Last week (recovery week) of cycle 1

C4TW:

Chemotherapy treatment week of cycle 4

C4RW:

Last week (recovery week) of cycle 4

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by California Breast Cancer Research Program 11IB-0034, a grant from Litebook, Inc, NCI CA112035, UL1RR031980 (CTRI), the UCSD Moores Cancer Center (NCI P30 CA23100), Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), the Stein Institute for Research on Aging, and the National Institute on Aging T35 grant AG026757.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive 0733, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0733, USA

    Neelum Jeste, Lianqi Liu, Vera Trofimenko & Sonia Ancoli-Israel

  2. SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA

    Michelle Rissling & Sonia Ancoli-Israel

  3. Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Loki Natarajan

  4. Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Barbara A. Parker & Sonia Ancoli-Israel

  5. UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Loki Natarajan, Barbara A. Parker & Sonia Ancoli-Israel

Authors
  1. Neelum Jeste
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  2. Lianqi Liu
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  3. Michelle Rissling
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  4. Vera Trofimenko
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  7. Sonia Ancoli-Israel
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Correspondence to Sonia Ancoli-Israel.

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Jeste, N., Liu, L., Rissling, M. et al. Prevention of quality-of-life deterioration with light therapy is associated with changes in fatigue in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Qual Life Res 22, 1239–1244 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-012-0243-2

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