Impact of aerobic exercise on cardiac function of breast cancer patients receiving anthracyclines / 实用医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the impact of postoperative aerobic exercise on the cardiac function of breast cancer patients during anthracyclines-based chemotherapy. Methods Sixty cases of female breast cancer pa-tients, from June 2014 to December 2015 for anthracyclines-based chemotherapy, were randomly divided into ex-perimental group (n = 30) and control group (n = 30). Four cycles of conventional anthracyclines-based chemotherapy were conducted in control group, while three times of aerobic exercise per week were added in exper-imental group until the end of treatment course apart from conventional treatment. The peak oxygen consumption (VO2max) and maximum heart rate (HRmax) were measured before and after chemotherapy in both groups, ac-companied by ECG monitoring and blood collecting to measure the changes in their N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), serum creatinine (SCr) and kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB). Results No significant differ-ences in various indicators before chemotherapy were reported between two groups (P>0.05). After chemotherapy, VO2 max/kg [(21.9 ± 3.6) vs. (14.5 ± 2.8) mL/(min·kg)], VO2 max [(1 523 ± 186) vs. (911 ± 185) mL/min] and HRmax[(115 ± 15) vs. (129 ± 16) beats/min] in experimental group were significantly improved when com-pared with those in control group; significant differences in hematological levels and ECG changes were also ob-served between two groups. Conclusion Aerobic exercise during chemotherapy can mitigate the cardiotoxicity of anthracyclines to patients, which provides a new idea and therapy to reduce the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events induced by anthracyclines-based chemotherapy.