Physical activity in the management of cancer-related fatigue induced by oncological treatments

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to review the literature on physical activity in the management of cancer-related fatigue.

Materials and methods: A search of PubMed for English- or French-language articles using the keywords fatigue, cancer, exercise, physical activity, sport, randomized, and controlled.

Results: We found reports of 11 randomized or controlled studies, all of them in English. Most involved small numbers of patients. Four of the studies reported that physical exercise had an effect on the fatigue: three a positive effect and one a negative effect. One of these four studies was carried out in patients still undergoing treatment (hormone therapy). Of the three post-treatment studies, the two finding positive effect involved breast cancer patients quite a while after the end of treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy), whereas the study finding a negative effect involved patients 1 month after treatment, all with chemotherapy.

Conclusion: Physical activity appears to be a good way of combating fatigue induced by various cancer therapies. However, many questions remain, which highlights the need for randomized studies with sufficient numbers of patients.