Effects of aerobic exercise on cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Increasing scientific evidences suggest that aerobic exercise may improve cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients, but many existing studies have yielded inconclusive results. This meta-analysis aimed to derive a more precise estimation of the effects of aerobic exercise on cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The PubMed, CISCOM, CINAHL, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EBSCO, Cochrane Library, and CBM databases were searched from inception through July 1, 2013 without language restrictions. Crude standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95 % confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Twelve comparative studies were assessed with a total of 1,014 breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, including 522 patients in the aerobic exercise group (intervention group) and 492 patients in the usual care group (control group). The meta-analysis results revealed that the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (RPFS) scores of breast cancer patients in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group (SMD=-0.82, 95% CI=-1.04 ∼ -0.60, P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Treatment-Fatigue scale (FACIT-F) scores between the intervention and control groups (SMD=0.09, 95% CI=-0.07 ∼ 0.25, P=0.224). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity indicated that there were significant differences in RPFS and FACIT-F scores between the intervention and control groups among Asian populations (RPFS: SMD=-1.08, 95% CI=-1.35 ∼ -0.82, P<0.001; FACIT-F: SMD=1.20, 95 % CI=0.70 ∼1.71, P<0.001), but not among Caucasian populations (all P>0.05). The current meta-analysis indicates that aerobic exercise may improve cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, especially among Asian populations.

Therapeutic effects of aerobic and resistance exercises for cancer survivors: a systematic review of meta-analyses of clinical trials

“…One low GRADE meta-analysis65 including only studies investigating aerobic exercise reported a pooled effect estimate for cancer-related fatigue (SMD: −0.82, 95% CI −1.04 to –0.60) that tended to be larger than the remaining meta-analyses (median SMD: −0.31; 25th percentile: −0.46; 75th percentile: −0.21), which included a mix of resistance and aerobic exercise studies. However, the other moderate GRADE meta-analysis58 that included only studies investigating aerobic exercise reported a pooled effect estimate (SMD: −0.22, 95% CI −0.39 to –0.04) that was similar to the remaining studies.…”

The Effect of Exercise Training on Mediators of Inflammation in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis

“…Importantly, in breast cancer survivors, IL6 has been associated with symptoms of fatigue, the most common and devastating complaint among cancer survivors (30,31), and a strong body of evidence has demonstrated that exercise improves fatigue in people with breast cancer specifically (32,33) and in people with cancer generally (34, 35). Therefore, the results of our meta-analysis lead us to hypothesize that exercise improves fatigue by counteracting key mediators of low-grade inflammation in women with breast cancer.…”

The Impact of a Ten-Week Physical Exercise Program on Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Regular physical activity (PA) has become an important complementary treatment strategy in several chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, metabolic syndrome, heart failure, breast cancer, and depression [14,15,16,17,18]. However, PA as a therapeutic option for IBD has not been studied sufficiently, and little is known about the effect of regular PA on disease activity, inflammation, and quality of life [19].…”