In days past, doctors would often counsel cancer patients to avoid strenuous activity, both during and immediately after treatment. Recent research, however, has demonstrated that moderate exercise can help many individuals with breast cancer to combat treatment-related fatigue and, in some cases, to speed recovery. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center has been at the forefront of this change in perspective, offering fitness classes for cancer patients and survivors.
A study published in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Cancer Survivorship [PubMed Abstract] investigated the effects of physical activity on both disease- and treatment-related symptoms and overall health-related quality of life of breast cancer survivors. Approximately 550 women, an average of six months after being diagnosed with Stages I to IIIA breast cancer, were included in the study. These participants were part of the Health, Eating, Activity, and Lifestyle Study, a prospective, multicenter trial funded by the National Cancer Institute. The study's participants were assessed both for the level of physical activity they engaged in before and after diagnosis, and for their cancer-related symptoms and health-related quality of life.
The study found that higher levels of sports and recreational activity after a breast cancer diagnosis led to fewer reports of fatigue, with vigorous activity having a stronger affect than moderate to vigorous activity. The study also found that breast cancer survivors who engaged in vigorous sports and recreational activities after diagnosis reported a greater health-related quality of life than women who engaged in less physical activity.
And in a study published in the March 2007 issue of the British Medical Journal [PubMed Abstract], researchers sought to determine the benefits of group exercise programs for women who are actively being treated for early-stage breast cancer. In the study, 313 women with Stages 0 to III breast cancer were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Women assigned to the intervention group followed a 12-week exercise program, which included twice-weekly classes and one at-home exercise session each week. Women in the control group did not participate in an exercise program.
The study's researchers found that after 12 weeks of supervised exercise, the intervention group reported benefits in both physical and psychological functioning that were not reported by the control group. And at a six-month follow-up, when most of the women were out of treatment, those women who had engaged in the exercise program reported improved quality of life related to their breast cancer.
In general, the type and intensity of exercise required varies from women to women, based on each woman's overall health, disease-status, and a host of treatment-related issues. All exercise plans should first be discussed with a patient's oncologist.
