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

Introduction: improvement in cancer care increases life expectancy of cancer patients, most of whomhave experienced prolonged episodes of fatigue during and after their treatment. this has been found toreduce the quality of life and increase morbidity and mortality of such patients. therefore, additionalinterventions are beneficial to improve overall quality of life as well as longevity. there is growingevidence that exercise is beneficial to cancer patients through improvements in their physical andphysiological abilities and functions.objectives: the purpose of the present article was to evaluate the current evidence to determine ifexercise could be used as a safe and effective method to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life inthese patients. the cochrane central register of controlled trials, medline, embase and cinahlsearch engines were electronically searched and 21 empirical studies published between 1995 and 2009were found.conclusion: there is accumulative data in the literature supporting the effectiveness of exerciseinterventions on the physical and psychological wellbeing of patients with cancer. exercise can improvemuscle mass and strength and whole body oxygen uptake which are reduced during bed rest, infectionand cancer treatments. growing evidence is now supporting the effectiveness of exercise on specificpopulations such as women suffering from breast cancer. however, the effect of exercise on otherpopulations such as children and patients suffering from other types of cancers is vague. therefore, moreresearch is needed to define scientific evidence-based rehabilitation protocols for patients with differenttypes of cancer.