Recent research demonstrated that exercise can drastically ameliorate cancer treatment side effects. It’s an important remedy for brain fog, pain, and fatigue. Healthcare professionals are learning about new, powerful benefits that physical activity can provide for cancer patients and survivors. That rigorous lifestyle appears to counteract some of the lethal side effects of chemo treatments such as chemotherapy.
Based on existing studies, the symptoms most likely to be improved with exercise are peripheral neuropathy, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, and shortness of breath. These conclusions are very important. Most importantly, they focus on how exercise does improve not just the pain, but the patients’ overall quality of life while undergoing cancer treatment.
C. Milan Sheth, MD, is a quadruple board certified specialist in internal medicine, hematology, oncology and palliative care at MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute. For one thing, he makes clear just how significant these findings really are. He notes that “insulin, insulin-like growth factors, and C-reactive protein […] these biomarkers are linked with cancer metabolism and systemic inflammation which can allow for further progression of cancer and eliminate any protective effects against chemotherapy.”
The finding that exercise can reduce cancer treatment-related pain was an important one to come out of our study. Furthermore, 54% of the assessed relationships between exercise and therapy side effect mitigation were statistically significant. Importantly, 48% of these associations were backed by high or moderate certainty evidence according to GRADE criteria.
Various forms of exercise showed effectiveness. Aerobic exercise only consisted of 9.9% of the total. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) made up 3.7%, mind–body exercises made up 28.5% and other types 57.9%. In fact, HIIT programs and tai chi, in particular, showed significant effectiveness in decreasing adverse effects associated with cancer treatments.
“The therapy we give — while it could keep you alive — can take away a life worth living, without the means to articulate, adapt, and engineer your life,” stated Bhavana Pathak, highlighting the necessity for supportive measures like exercise alongside conventional treatments.
The impact of these results goes further than just short-term symptom relief. Sheth’s key point is that those patients who were physically active had the greatest gains. These benefits included greater muscle strength, improved body composition, higher quality of sleep, and greater mood.
“Specifically, the symptoms that seem to be most impacted or improved included peripheral neuropathy, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, and shortness of breath.” – [source unspecified]
With the incidence of many types of cancer increasing every year, we must be proactive in how we care for patients. Therefore, healthcare providers are urged to do more to promote physical activity to their patients.
“We want to encourage oncology professionals to counsel their patients on increasing physical activity as a means to improve their clinical outcomes, even when faced with serious diagnoses like cancer, in the future,” – Bhavana Pathak
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