Pain after you finish treatment for early breast cancer

Some people experience pain for weeks, months or even years after they finish treatment for early breast cancer. This may be caused by a variety of things including surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Often there are things you can do to reduce the pain or how much it affects your life. It is important you let your doctor know if you experience pain. They will assess you so they can develop a plan to manage it.

This may require a range of approaches, including medication, exercise and psychosocial support. 

Pain from surgery

Scar tissue can cause pain after lumpectomy, mastectomy or lymph node surgery. 

After surgery to remove lymph nodes from the armpit, some people develop ‘cording’. This can make the tissue hard so it feels like a cord. This can cause pain or discomfort, but massage can improve it. Read about Cording.

Joint pain

Some treatments, in particular hormone-blocking treatments, can make your joints and muscles ache. Find out about the exercise, medications and complementary therapies that can help: Joint pain related to hormone-blocking treatments.

Nerve pain

Surgery, radiotherapy and some chemotherapy drugs can damage the nerves. You may experience pain in the breast or arm or or tingling in your fingers or toes ('peripheral neuropathy'). You should mention this to your treating team to see if there is anything that can be done to help.

Phantom pain

Phantom pain is a feeling of pain in a part of the body that is no longer there. After mastectomy, some people experience phantom pain in the place where the breast or breast has been removed. This is not common.

Fibrosis

In rare cases, radiotherapy can damage the skin and soft tissues. It may cause them to scar and become thick, which can become painful.

Options to treat fibrosis after radiation include treatments you apply to your skin ('topical' treatments) and physiotherapy.