Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in Australia, yet routine screening and management of pelvic floor dysfunction are not a part of standard breast cancer care.

As pelvic floor muscle training is the recommended first-line management for pelvic floor dysfunction, physiotherapists potentially have a major role in helping women in this population.

The Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) has summarised key messages from the research study’s findings featured in the September edition of InMotion and produced this infographic. To read the research abstract, click here (note: paid access to full article). Click on the image below to access a printable A3 file.

About the authors:

Dr Udari Colombage APAM is a physiotherapy researcher at the University of Melbourne and a lecturer at Monash University. Udari is a Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) Seeding Grant recipient, receiving the grant to assist in her study to compare pelvic floor health in women with and without breast cancer.

Dr Sze-Ee Soh APAM is a lecturer and research fellow at Monash University and an experienced physiotherapist with an extensive clinical background in delivering physiotherapy services for older adults.

Dr Kuan-Yin Lin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Monash University. She is currently working on a NHMRC funded women's health and pelvic floor physiotherapy research program.

Associate Professor Helena Frawley APAM, FACP is the lead of the women’s health physiotherapy research group at Monash University and Head of Allied Health Research and Education at Cabrini Health. Helena is a physiotherapy researcher and Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists, Clinical Specialist in Women’s and Pelvic Health, Associate Professor at the Melbourne School of Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Director of Allied Health Research at the Royal Women’s Hospital and the Mercy Hospital for Women, and Honorary (Principal Fellow), Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Royal Women’s Hospital/Mercy.
 

This infographic is a Physiotherapy Research Foundation (PRF) initiative.