Updated Systematic Review of the Effects of Exercise on Understudied Health Outcomes in Cancer Survivors

Overview

Journal Cancer Med

Specialty Oncology

Date 2023 Nov 29

PMID 38018376

Authors

Kathleen M Sturgeon

Dieuwertje E Kok

Ian R Kleckner

Kristin A Guertin

Jessica McNeil

Traci L Parry

Diane K Ehlers

Andrew Hamilton

Kathryn Schmitz

Kristin L Campbell

Kerri Winters-Stone

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: The American College of Sports Medicine provided guidelines for exercise prescriptions in cancer survivors for specific cancer- and treatment-related health outcomes. However, there was insufficient evidence to generate exercise prescriptions for 10 health outcomes of cancer treatment. We sought to update the state of evidence.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of these 10 understudied health outcomes (bone health, sleep, cardiovascular function, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), cognitive function, falls and balance, nausea, pain, sexual function, and treatment tolerance) and provided an update of evidence.

Results: While the evidence base for each outcome has increased, there remains insufficient evidence to generate exercise prescriptions. Common limitations observed across outcomes included: variability in type and quality of outcome measurement tools, variability in definitions of the health outcomes, a lack of phase III trials, and a majority of trials investigating breast or prostate cancer survivors only.

Conclusion: We identified progress in the field of exercise oncology for several understudied cancer- and treatment-related health outcomes. However, we were not able to generate exercise prescriptions due to continued insufficient evidence base. More work is needed to prescribe exercise as medicine for these understudied health outcomes, and our review highlights several strategies to aid in research acceleration within these areas of exercise oncology.

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