Long-Term Yogic Intervention Improves Symptomatic Scale and Quality of Life by Reducing Inflammatory Cytokines and Oxidative Stress in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy and/or Radiotherapy: A Randomized Control Study.

INTRODUCTION: Inflammation has been associated with tumor proliferation and metastasis in breast cancer. Yoga is an ancient therapy that helps in reducing inflammation and improves the patient's quality of life (QoL) and fatigue. In the current study, we investigated the effects of long-term yogic intervention at different time points on the level of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress, along with the symptomatic scale and QoL in stage II/III breast cancer patients. METHODS: Ninety-six stage II/III breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were enrolled and divided into two groups, non-yoga (Group I) and yoga (Group II). Participants in Group II practiced yoga five days per week for 48 weeks. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ30) was used to measure the QoL and symptomatic scale. Serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and oxidative stress markers, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO) were measured at baseline, 16, 32, and 48 weeks in both groups. RESULTS: Yoga significantly (p<0.05) reduced the level of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and MDA and improved QoL (p<0.001) and symptomatic scale (p<0.05) in Group II patients compared to Group I. NO was upregulated in Group I whereas in Group II, it was neither decreased nor increased. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that yoga may reduce levels of inflammatory cytokines and improve QoL and symptomatic scale in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Yoga can be an important additional therapy during cancer treatments to cope with treatment side effects including fatigue, depression, and immunological profile, which directly affects the patient's quality of life.

Long-term yogic intervention decreases serum interleukins IL-10 and IL-1ß and improves cancer-related fatigue and functional scale during radiotherapy/chemotherapy in breast cancer patients: a randomized control study.

PURPOSE: Yoga improved fatigue and immunological profile in cancer survivors and has been a promising alternative therapy. Breast cancer treatments are rapidly improving, along with their side effects. This article investigated the effect of the yogic intervention at a different time interval during radiotherapy/chemotherapy on the pro- and anti-inflammatory interleukins along with the cancer-related fatigue and functional scale among patients with stage II/III breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 96 stage II/III breast cancer patients were enrolled in this study and randomly divided into two different groups. Group I (non-Yoga) received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and group II (Yoga) received an additional yogic intervention. Both groups were followed up for a period of 48 weeks and blood was collected at the time of enrollment, 16, 32, and 48 weeks, and serum was isolated to measure the pro- and anti-inflammatory interleukins, fatigue, and functional scale questionnaire obtained at each time point. RESULTS: Breast cancer patients in group II showed a significant improvement (p < 0.05) in the functional scale and fatigue from baseline to 48 weeks compared to group I. The yogic intervention significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the level of pro-inflammatory interleukin IL-1ß and pleiotropic interleukin IL-10 in group II compared to group I. CONCLUSION: These finding suggested that improved fatigue and functional scale is associated with a lower level of IL-1ß and IL-10. Yoga may be an important additional therapy along with the cancer treatment to help the patients with cancer-related fatigue and improve their overall immunological profile.