Physical activity in the management of cancer-related fatigue induced by oncological treatments.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to review the literature on physical activity in the management of cancer-related fatigue.


METHODS
A search of PubMed for English- or French-language articles using the keywords fatigue, cancer, exercise, physical activity, sport, randomized, and controlled.


RESULTS
We found reports of 11 randomized or controlled studies, all of them in English. Most involved small numbers of patients. Four of the studies reported that physical exercise had an effect on the fatigue: three a positive effect and one a negative effect. One of these four studies was carried out in patients still undergoing treatment (hormone therapy). Of the three post-treatment studies, the two finding positive effect involved breast cancer patients quite a while after the end of treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy), whereas the study finding a negative effect involved patients 1 month after treatment, all with chemotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Physical activity appears to be a good way of combating fatigue induced by various cancer therapies. However, many questions remain, which highlights the need for randomized studies with sufficient numbers of patients.
Labourey
J L
JL
Service d'oncologie médicale [Medical Oncology Department], CHU Dupuytren [Dupuytren Teaching Hospital], 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87042 Limoges cedex, France. jeanluc.labourey@freesbee.fr
D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy*