Autonomic nervous system dysfunction in breast cancer patients

When studying oncology diseases, it is necessary not only to assess their nature, progress and outcome depending on the local disease process, but also to take into account overall health, since multiple organ damage has a prognostic value and determines the disease outcome. All mechanisms and structures that have an integrative and homeostatic effect on the overall health should be considered. One of these structures is the autonomic nervous system. Traditionally, the autonomic nervous system has been considered in terms of 3 components: sympathetic, parasympathetic and intestinal. However, in recent years, ideas about neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems have come to the fore, justifying the expansion of the concept "autonomy of the nervous system.11 In case of autonomous dysfunction, dysregulation of the involuntary body functions occurs, and autonomic neuropathy develops. There are cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urogenital, and sudomotor forms of autonomic neuropathy, which are characterized by certain changes in various pathological states, especially in malignant processes. We pay attention to breast cancer, which ranks first in the structure of oncology diseases in the Russian Federation. Nowadays, there are only a few studies devoted to the changes in the autonomic nervous system in patients with breast cancer during anticancer drug therapy, taking into account the disease progress and clinical features, as well as methods for dysfunction remodeling. The article analyzes a number of scientific information sources that can help to study various forms of autonomic neuropathy in patients with breast cancer and allow assessing the use of medical rehabilitation for such patients.