Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2025 May 29;25(1):263.
doi: 10.1186/s12905-025-03758-4.

A pilot investigation of the impact of acute mental and physical fatigue exposure on inflammatory cytokines and state fatigue level in breast cancer survivors

Ali A Weinstein  1 , Krish Seth  2 , Shana Gordy  2 , Kashaf Jabbar  2 , Nylab Noori  2 , Aybike Birerdinc  3 , Ancha Baranova  3 , Patrice Winter  2 , Lynn H Gerber  4
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

A pilot investigation of the impact of acute mental and physical fatigue exposure on inflammatory cytokines and state fatigue level in breast cancer survivors

Ali A Weinstein et al. BMC Womens Health. .

Abstract

Background: This study aims to analyze the changes in inflammatory cytokines and state fatigue after exposure to a mental or physical fatiguing activity in breast cancer survivors (BCS).

Methods: A total of 46 BCS women (age: 58.9 ± 9.1) were recruited for this study and randomly assigned to one of three groups: exposure to physical fatigue (n = 16), mental fatigue (n = 15), or control (n = 15). Participants exposed to physical fatigue performed a 6-minute walk/run test. Participants exposed to mental fatigue performed a version of a dual 2-back task on a computer. Participants in the control group watched a video for 6 min. Clinically significant fatigue was defined by the FACIT-F. Analytes in serum were profiled using the Bio-Plex 200 Suspension Array System, specifically IL-1β, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, eotaxin, TNF-α, TGF-β1, and VEGF.

Results: Changes in inflammatory factors in response to the assigned fatigue-inducing tasks were mainly not statistically significant. The presence of clinically significant fatigue reported at baseline was, however, related to reactions to fatigue-inducing stimuli. Levels of TGF-β and eotaxin were consistently altered in reactions to fatigue-inducing tasks, particularly in those with clinical fatigue.

Conclusions: Clinically significant fatigue is related to increased inflammatory reactions to mentally or physically fatiguing tasks, highlighting the consistent impact that fatigue has across various challenges of daily activities. Acute fatigue challenges, the kind that BCS would be exposed to in everyday circumstances, does increase inflammatory responses, and those with clinically significant levels of fatigue at baseline are more likely to show these effects.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Cancer-related fatigue; Clinically significant fatigue; Inflammation; Reactivity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of George Mason University (#7994). Informed written consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Interaction between clinical/non-clinical fatigue and fatigue-inducing tasks for the physical fatigue group (Panel A), mental fatigue group (Panel B), and control group (Panel C). Error bars represent standard error of mean. TGF-β: tumor growth factor beta
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatterplot depicting association between total FACIT-F (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Fatigue) score and post-task/baseline eotaxin difference for the physical fatigue group (r = -0.151) (Panel A), post-task/baseline for the mental fatigue group (r = 0.633) (Panel B), and post-task/baseline for the control group (r = 0.343) (Panel C)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer facts and figs. 2019–2020. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society, Inc.; 2019.
    1. Sisler J, Chaput G, Sussman J, Ozokwelu E. Follow-up after treatment for breast cancer. Can Fam Physician. 2016;62(10):805–11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ganz PA, Bower JE. Cancer related fatigue: a focus on breast cancer and Hodgkin’s disease survivors. Acta Oncol Stockh Swed. 2007;46(4):474–9. - PubMed
    1. Bower JE. Cancer-related fatigue: mechanisms, risk factors, and treatments. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2014;11(10):597–609. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Maass SWMC, Brandenbarg D, Boerman LM, Verhaak PFM, de Bock GH, Berendsen AJ. Fatigue among Long-Term breast Cancer survivors: A controlled Cross-Sectional study. Cancers. 2021;13(6):1301. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources