ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer amongst Indian women. Cancer treatments leads to various side effects out of which Cancer-Related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most under-addressed side-effects. It is experienced the most in patients receiving chemotherapy. Exercise has been proven to be a beneficial intervention to manage CRF but the benefits of pedometer-based exercise programs is under-studied in patients with breast cancer. Hence, we set out to investigate the effects of a pedometer-based exercise program for patients with breast receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: The current study was a non-randomized controlled trial with 22 patients each in exercise and control group. The exercise group received a pedometer-based walking program, whereas the control group received standard physical activity advice. Fatigue, quality of life, functional capacity and body composition were assessed at baseline, 3rd week and 7th week. RESULTS: At the end of 7 weeks intervention, functional capacity, quality of life and skeletal mass were found to have improved with statistical significance, while the fatigue and changes in total fat did improve but were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: A 7-week pedometer-based exercise program improved functional capacity, quality of life and percentage of skeletal mass and also shows to have prevented deterioration in fatigue levels in patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/adverse effects , Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy , Exercise Therapy , Fatigue/therapy , Fitness Trackers/statistics & numerical data , Quality of Life , Adult , Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Case-Control Studies , Fatigue/chemically induced , Fatigue/pathology , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Middle Aged , Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , PrognosisABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Exercises such as walking are prescribed for the patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy, but only a few studies include pedometers in conjunction with the routine exercises prescribed. Thus, the aim was to find if the adherence and performance of exercise is improved or has no impact if coupled with the physical activity monitors. METHODS: A systematic search using the keywords was conducted in PubMed Central, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus. The search revealed 275 articles, of which 3 randomized controlled trials were selected for qualitative analysis based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review. RESULTS: The three studies retrieved by the systematic review have used different protocols of pedometer-based walking on patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy and studied the following outcome measures: fatigue, body composition, quality of life, and psychological factors. CONCLUSION: The evidence obtained from the review suggests that pedometer-based walking programs have a positive impact on cancer-related fatigue and overall quality of life of patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy.
