Physical activity for patients undergoing an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: benefits of a moderate exercise intervention

Abstract

The results show that the training program is feasible and seems to have positive influences on physical performance and quality of life in patients undergoing an allogeneic HSCT. However, further studies are necessary to confirm these results.

Efficacy of exercise training in SCT patients-who benefits most?

“…Only a small non-significant increase ( þ 10%) in one measured muscle group (hip-flexor) was seen in the unfit group. Comparable results were reported by others 10,25 showing that exercising under allo-HCT can prevent the loss of physical performance, but does not result in increases. Furthermore, the study by Defor et al 26 also showed comparable results with regard to the Karnofsky performance score.…”

Effect of physical exercise on muscle mass and strength in cancer patients during treatment—A systematic review

“…Thus, data extraction was performed on 18 papers. Two of the papers were publications based on the same study and were excluded [27,28], leaving 16 trials for final synthesis. Figure 1 shows the outcome of the search process and selection of studies.…”

Physical Exercise for Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

“…The onset timing of physical exercise intervention for allo-HSCT patients varies, and can occur in 1 of 3 phases: conditioning (before HSCT) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17], post engraftment (after HSCT) [18,19], or hospital discharge phase [20][21][22][23][24]. Recently, physical exercise intervention has reportedly been increasingly initiated during the conditioning phase (chemotherapy and radiation therapy regimen).…”

“…Physical exercise intervention is usually fully [11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] or partially supervised [12] in patients undergoing allo-HSCT. Interestingly, Shelton et al [22] reported higher endurance and gait speeds in supervised training groups than that in patient-directed training groups.…”

“…Interestingly, Shelton et al [22] reported higher endurance and gait speeds in supervised training groups than that in patient-directed training groups. Physical exercise intervention for patients undergoing allo-HSCT typically involves a combination of aerobic training (treadmill, cycle, walking or stair climbing) and resistive exercises with weights or elastic bands [11][12][13]18,19,21,22]. Other common physical exercise programs have incorporated educational [22] and psychoeducational [11] elements with low intensity bed exercises for stretching and relaxation breathing [14,15].…”