Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. An important goal for cancer patients is to improve the quality of life (QOL) by maximizing functions affected by the disease and its therapy. This study examined the effects of massage therapy on quality of life in women with breast cancer after surgery.

Materials and Methods: The study was quasi-experimental. Among the 53 women with breast cancer surgery and oncology clinic of Arak, 30 were randomly allocated in two groups of massage therapy (n=15) and 5 weeks (30 min, 2 sessions per week) and control (15 cases). Cortisol levels and quality of life questionnaire (SF36) was redirected and mental health groups. Data analysis software SPSS version 16 using paired t-test and one-way analysis of variance and a confidence level of 95% (p<0.05) was performed.

Results: The results showed a significant increase in the experimental group improved after the massage, physical (p=0.001) and psycho-social (p=0.002) were compared with control subjects. Massage also improves quality of life and mental health in breast cancer patients after surgery was (p<0.05). However, serum cortisol levels between the experimental and control groups were not significant (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The overall results of this study showed that massage therapy can be an effective intervention to improve quality of life and mental health in patients with breast cancer during radiotherapy is used.