• Kerry S Courneya, Roanne J Segal, Karen Gelmon, Robert D Reid, John R Mackey, Christine M Friedenreich, Caroline Proulx, Kirstin Lane, Aliya B Ladha, Jeffrey K Vallance, Qi Liu, Yutaka Yasui, and Donald C McKenzie.
• University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. kerry.courneya@ualberta.ca
• Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Dec 1; 16 (12): 2572-8.

BackgroundFew exercise trials in cancer patients have reported longer-term follow-up. Here, we report a 6-month follow-up of exercise behavior and patient-rated outcomes from an exercise trial in breast cancer patients.MethodsBreast cancer patients initiating adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 242) were randomly assigned to usual care (n = 82), resistance exercise training (RET; n = 82), or aerobic exercise training (AET; n = 78) for the duration of their chemotherapy. At 6-month follow-up, participants were mailed a questionnaire that assessed quality of life, self-esteem, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and exercise behavior.ResultsTwo hundred one (83.1%) participants provided 6-month follow-up data. Adjusted linear mixed-model analyses showed that, at 6-month follow-up, the RET group reported higher self-esteem [adjusted mean difference, 1.6; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.1-3.2; P = 0.032] and the AET group reported lower anxiety (adjusted mean difference, -4.7; 95% CI, -0.0 to -9.3; P = 0.049) compared with the usual care group. Moreover, compared with participants reporting no regular exercise during the follow-up period, those reporting regular aerobic and resistance exercise also reported better patient-rated outcomes, including quality of life (adjusted mean difference, 9.5; 95% CI, 1.2-17.8; P = 0.025).ConclusionsImprovements in self-esteem observed with RET during breast cancer chemotherapy were maintained at 6-month follow-up whereas reductions in anxiety not observed with AET during breast cancer chemotherapy emerged at 6-month follow-up. Moreover, adopting a combined aerobic and resistance exercise program after breast cancer chemotherapy was associated with further improvements in patient-rated outcomes. Exercise training during breast cancer chemotherapy may result in some longer-term and late effects for selected patient-rated outcomes.

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