Social support and physical activity for cancer survivors: a qualitative review and meta-study.

PURPOSE: Physical activity (PA) is important for well-being and coping among cancer survivors. Social support (SS) encourages adoption and maintenance of PA behavior, and PA contexts can provide opportunities for obtaining support for coping with cancer. The qualitative literature examining cancer survivors' experience with SS in and for PA could inform understanding of behaviors experienced as supportive. The purpose of this meta-study was to synthesize the research on adult cancer survivors' experiences with SS related to PA. METHODS: Following meta-study guidelines, we searched nine databases and retrieved 39 articles describing intervention and observation studies, and extracted, analyzed, and synthesized information addressing SS and PA in cancer survivors. RESULTS: Results emphasized ways that PA contexts facilitate relationships, which are a foundation for obtaining supportive behaviors that enable PA (e.g., providing encouragement and accountability) and assist with coping with cancer (e.g., understanding and talking about cancer). Some themes identified were unique to studies with female breast cancer, advanced cancer, interventions or programs, and that used interviews versus focus groups. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding supportive behaviors could improve PA and coping with cancer in interventions. Future research should focus on identifying supportive behaviors, incorporating theory and methods to address the development of supportive relationships, and recruiting more diverse samples of participants in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and cancer type. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: PA can provide opportunities for positive social connections ranging from loose to close social ties, and this research identifies several behaviors in the PA context that may be supportive of PA behavior (e.g., providing actionable information), and coping with cancer (e.g., opportunities but low obligation to talk about cancer).

Yoga for symptom management in oncology: A review of the evidence base and future directions for research.

Because yoga is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach to cancer symptom management, patients/survivors and providers need to understand its potential benefits and limitations both during and after treatment. The authors reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of yoga conducted at these points in the cancer continuum (N = 29; n = 13 during treatment, n = 12 post-treatment, and n = 4 with mixed samples). Findings both during and after treatment demonstrated the efficacy of yoga to improve overall quality of life (QOL), with improvement in subdomains of QOL varying across studies. Fatigue was the most commonly measured outcome, and most RCTs conducted during or after cancer treatment reported improvements in fatigue. Results also suggested that yoga can improve stress/distress during treatment and post-treatment disturbances in sleep and cognition. Several RCTs provided evidence that yoga may improve biomarkers of stress, inflammation, and immune function. Outcomes with limited or mixed findings (eg, anxiety, depression, pain, cancer-specific symptoms, such as lymphedema) and positive psychological outcomes (such as benefit-finding and life satisfaction) warrant further study. Important future directions for yoga research in oncology include: enrolling participants with cancer types other than breast, standardizing self-report assessments, increasing the use of active control groups and objective measures, and addressing the heterogeneity of yoga interventions, which vary in type, key components (movement, meditation, breathing), dose, and delivery mode.