Twenty-five years of research on the effects of exercise training in breast cancer survivors: A systematic review of the literature.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role of exercise training the past 25 years on major physiological-psychological outcomes studied thus far in this patient population.


METHODS
PubMed, MedlinePlus, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, SportDiscus, Embase, Scorpus, and Google Scholar were searched from September to November 2013 to identify exercise training studies that used objective measurements of fitness and/or patient reported outcomes assessed pre and post-exercise training with statistical analyses performed in at least one of the following outcome measurements: Cardiorespiratory function, body composition, muscular strength, fatigue, depression, and overall quality of life. Five reviewers independently identified the studies that met the criteria for the review and discrepancies were resolved by consensus among all authors.


RESULTS
Fifty-one studies were included in this review with 5 from the period between 1989-1999, 11 from 2000-2006, and 35 from 2007-2013. The evolution of study designs changed from aerobic only exercise training interventions (1989-1999), to a combination of aerobic and resistance training (2000-2006), to studies including an arm of resistance training or examining the effects of resistance training as the main mode of exercise (2007-2013). Overall, the benefits of exercise showed improvements in cardiorespiratory function, body composition, strength, and patient reported outcomes including fatigue, depression, and quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
Exercise training appears to be safe for most breast cancer patients and improvements in physiological, psychological, and functional parameters can be attained with regular participation in moderate intensity exercise.
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Claudio L
CL
Battaglini
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Robert C
RC
Mills
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Brett L
BL
Phillips
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Jordan T
JT
Lee
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Christina E
CE
Story
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Marcelo Gb
MG
Nascimento
Claudio L Battaglini, Robert C Mills, Brett L Phillips, Jordan T Lee, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Christina Story, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.
Anthony Carl
AC
Hackney
Breast cancer; Complementary Alternative Medicine; Exercise training; Oncology; Patients reported outcomes; VO2peak