Active lifestyle promotion with home-based exercise in breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Background: In cancer survivors, quality of life, weight management and physical activity levels are growing areas of interest, also considering such parameters may offer protection to cancer recurrence. Research question: In this study, we aimed to objectively verify whether a home-based exercise program is effective in weight management of a cohort of breast-cancer survivors. Type of study: Experimental cohort observational study. Methods: We enrolled 13 women (age 49.1±5.5, height 163±7.3 cm) and evaluated habitual physical activity levels. Afterwards we compared the baseline aerobic capacity by 6 Minutes Walking Test (6MWT), flexibility, grip and lower limbs strength and body composition, to the same parameters measured after 40 days of unsupervised exercise. Results: At baseline (T0), patients displayed a moderate level of physical activity and were overweight. After 40 days of unsupervised exercise (T1), we observed improvement of all analyzed parameters with statistical significance in waist circumference (T0=0.57±0.1 cm, T1=0.55±0.1 cm; p<0.01), distance walked in 6 MWT (T0445.4±168.1 m, T1=534.6±151.5 m; p<0.05), 30 '' Chair test (T0=14.8±5.6 rep, T1=16.3±4.9 rep; p<0.05). Conclusions: Home-based unsupervised exercise in breast-cancer survivors yielded short-term efficacy in all analyzed parameters. Efficacy at long-term and a possible effect in reducing the risk of tumor relapse remain to be elucidated in larger cohorts with longer and multidisciplinary follow up.