In people who have cancer, exercise therapy improves cardiorespiratory fitness

Scott JM, Zabor EC, Schwitzer E, et al. Efficacy of Exercise Therapy on Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients With Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Clin Oncol. 2018;36:2297-2305.

Review question

In people who have cancer that began during adulthood, does exercise therapy improve cardiorespiratory fitness?

Background

Treatments for cancer can reduce a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness, even after the treatment is finished. Poor cardiorespiratory fitness can result in poor health-related quality of life and increase the risk of death over time. It is not known whether exercise therapy can improve cardiorespiratory fitness in people who have had treatment for cancer.

How the review was done

The researchers did a systematic review based on studies available up to February 2018.

They found 48 randomized controlled trials with 3,632 people.

The key features of the studies were:

• people were mostly women (68%), average age 55 years, who had breast, prostate, lung, blood, colorectal, gastrointestinal, or other cancer;
• exercise therapy was done before surgery, or during or after primary adjuvant treatment;
• type of exercise therapy was aerobic (56% of studies), resistance (6%), or aerobic and resistance (38%); and
• exercise therapy was compared with no exercise.

What the researchers found

Exercise therapy improved cardiorespiratory fitness compared with no exercise.

Conclusion

In people who have cancer that began during adulthood, exercise therapy improves cardiorespiratory fitness.

Exercise therapy vs no exercise in people with cancer