Resistance exercise improves fatigue in patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the International Journal of Cancer, resistant exercise decreased physical fatigue and maintained quality of life among patients with breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. For the study, researchers sought to investigate whether resistant exercise during chemotherapy would improve fatigue and quality of life more than group-based intervention. Researchers enrolled 101 patients with breast cancer who were beginning chemotherapy and randomly assigned them to receive either resistance exercise or relaxation control. Both interventions were supervised and administered in a group twice weekly for 12 weeks.

Results showed that total and physical fatigue worsened during chemotherapy in the relaxation control group, while resistance exercise did not. There were no significant differences regarding affective or cognitive fatigue. Resistance exercise was also found to improve role and social function. The findings suggest resistance exercise maintained improved physical fatigue and did not worsen quality of life beyond psychosocial effects that are normally gained from supervised group-based interventions. The researchers suggest that resistance exercise could be included in supportive care for patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.