Comparing Endurance and Resistance Training with Standard Care during Chemotherapy for Patients with Primary Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background/aim: Previous findings suggest that physical activity during breast cancer treatment can reduce side-effects and improve clinical outcome. In the present study, endurance (ET) and resistance training (RT) in 67 patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy were compared with standard-care (SC).

Patients and methods: Study end-points were muscular strength, endurance and subjective perceived exertion during the endurance stress test (Borg scale) and quality of life (QoL) measured by standardized report form of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ C30+BR23) before and after 12 weeks of treatment.

Results: The RT and ET groups improved significantly in muscular strength compared to the SC group. Endurance decreased in all groups after treatment (p>0.05 for all groups); the maximum endurance loss occurred in the SC group (p=0.001). The subjective perceived exertion at 100 W remained stable in the RT group (p=1.00) decreased most in the SC group (p=0.3) and to a lesser extent in the ET group (p=0.02). In the RT group, QoL improved significantly (p=0.011). There was also a trend for improvement of QoL in the ET group (p=0.09) whereas that of the SC group decreased (p=0.8).

Conclusion: Results highlight improvements in strength, endurance and QoL from exercise training and support its implementation in standard of care during chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer; chemotherapy; exercise; physical activity.