Exercise as a Treatment to Improve the Quality of Life in Patients with Cancer: A Review of the Literature

Objectives: Improvement in cancer care increases life expectancy of patients with cancer, most of whom have experienced prolonged episodes of fatigue during and after their treatment. This has been found to reduce the quality of life and increase morbidity and mortality of such patients. Therefore, additional interventions are beneficial to improve overall quality of life as well as longevity. There is growing evidence that exercise is beneficial for oncology patients though improvements in their physical, physiological abilities and functions. The purpose of the present article is to evaluate the current evidence to determine if exercise could be used as a safe and effective medicine to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life in these patients. Methods: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL search engines were electronically searched and 21 empirical studies, published between 1995 and 2009, were located. Results: There is accumulative data in the literature supporting the effectiveness of exercise interventions on the physical and psychological wellbeing of patients with cancer. Exercise can improve muscle mass and strength and whole body oxygen uptake which are reduced during bed rest, infection and cancer treatments. Discussion: Growing evidence is now supporting the effectiveness of exercise on specific populations such as women suffering from breast cancer. However, the effect of exercise on other populations such as children and patients suffering from other types of cancers is vague. Therefore, more research is needed to define scientific evidence based rehabilitation protocols for oncology patients with different types of cancer.