Fatigue is one of the most common and difficult side effects of chemotherapy. It can make everyday activities such as walking, cooking, working, or spending time with family feel much harder.
Researchers wanted to find out whether resistance exercise, or strength training, could help reduce fatigue and maintain quality of life in women with breast cancer while they were actively receiving chemotherapy.
What Did Researchers Study?
-101 women with breast cancer participated in the study.
-Participants were undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy, meaning chemotherapy given as part of their active breast cancer treatment.
-Women were randomly assigned to either:
-A progressive resistance-training program, or
-A supervised relaxation program used as the comparison group.
-Both groups met for approximately 60 minutes, twice per week for 12 weeks.
What Did the Study Find?
Researchers found that physical fatigue was less in women who performed resistance training than in women in the relaxation group.
The resistance-training group was also better able to maintain quality of life during chemotherapy, while quality of life declined more in the comparison group.
Overall, the researchers concluded that resistance training appeared to:
-Help prevent worsening physical fatigue
-Help patients maintain their physical functioning
-Help preserve quality of life during chemotherapy
The benefits appeared to go beyond the psychological or social benefits of simply participating in a supervised group program.
Why Does This Matter?
Many patients may assume they should rest as much as possible during chemotherapy, especially when they are already feeling tired.
However, this study suggests that appropriately supervised strength training may actually help patients manage treatment-related fatigue rather than make it worse.
Maintaining muscle strength during chemotherapy may also make everyday activities, such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or completing household tasks, easier.
Main Takeaways
-Resistance training can be performed during active breast cancer chemotherapy.
-Women who participated in strength training experienced less worsening of physical fatigue.
-Resistance exercise helped patients maintain quality of life during chemotherapy.
-The program involved supervised strength training approximately twice per week.
-Exercise should still be individualized based on a patient’s health, treatment side effects, and any restrictions from their oncology team.
Source: Schmidt ME, Wiskemann J, Armbrust P, et al. Effects of Resistance Exercise on Fatigue and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.