A Scoping Review on Exercise Interventions During Adjuvant Chemotherapy or Radiotherapy for Cancer.

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy remain the first line of treatment for many different types of cancer. The diagnosis of cancer and its treatment lead to many physical and psychological symptoms. Several types of exercise interventions are available to help alleviate these symptoms. However, there is very little evidence available that provides an overview of all the exercises and outcomes. Hence, the aim of this review is to provide an overview of the various exercise interventions and their outcomes for patients with cancer undergoing adjuvant therapy. PubMed and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) were searched with the following Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms: "Physiotherapy" OR "Physical therapy" OR "Exercise" AND "Adjuvant therapy for cancer" for the last 10 years. Full-text articles describing exercise interventions for patients receiving adjuvant therapy for cancer were included. A total of 40 articles were included in the analysis. The findings of this review suggest that aerobics, strengthening exercises, and the combination of both are the most common types of interventions used. A multimodal therapy that includes aerobics, strengthening, balance, mobility, and flexibility exercises is also commonly used. Apart from this, yoga and relaxation are also being used in cancer patients. The frequently used outcome measures include fatigue, cardiorespiratory fitness, and quality of life (QoL), followed by physical fitness, anthropometric measurements, anxiety and depression, cognitive function, and others. Thus, this review provides an overview of current exercise trends and outcome measures in practice for patients with cancer undergoing adjuvant therapy.