Health-related quality of life and physical fitness in breast cancer patients: the impact of a supervised physical exercise program in women with no exercise experience

Abstract

After breast cancer diagnosis (BCD), localized breast cancer (BC) patients are treated with curative intent by several therapeutic modalities. Despite the benefit of those therapies, the induction of side effects is acommon consequence affecting psychosocial and physiological outcomes. This quasi-experimental study compared physical fitness in recent-term (14-30 months; n= 11) and later-term (74-92 months; n= 8) BCD patients. After inclusion, recent-term BCD patients were engaged in asupervised exercise program and was explored its impact on physical fitness, health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and fatigue. At baseline (M1) and after 8 (M2) and 16 weeks (M3) of this period, HR-QOL and fatigue were evaluated by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and physical fitness through the estimation of maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max,ml.kg.min-1), handgrip force (kg) and sit-stand test. At baseline, women with later-term BCD have revealed better VO2max (p < 0.05) than recent-term BCD patients. There was asignificant time*group interaction for physical fitness outcomes and only the patients who have participated in the exercise program reported significant changes between baseline and at 16 weeks. The observed results demonstrated that performing regular exercise is associated with effective psychosocial and physiological recovery after BCD.

Keywords: Breast cancer; health-related quality of life; physical fitness; supervised exercise; supporting therapy.