Editorial

Exercise for Breast Cancer Survivors

Najafipour F*
Artesh University of Medical Sciences, Iran


*Corresponding author: Farshad Najafipour, Artesh University of Medical Sciences, Iran


Published: 08 May, 2016
Cite this article as: Najafipour F. Exercise for Breast Cancer Survivors. Clin Oncol. 2016; 1: 1014.

Editorial

We are evaluating the group-based, exercise intervention at a cancer medical center in breast cancer survivors. We wish that the program be feasible and resulted change in body composition and circulating biomarkers in women who attending the program [1]. BCa is the most common non-skin cancer among women in the Iran, accounting for approximately 30 percent of all new cancer cases annually and, is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Mortality rates of BCa in Iranian women are relatively higher than world average [2]. The reasons for this disparity in BCa mortality rates are not completely known but may include socioeconomic status, differential access to health care and, potentially, disease-related molecular mechanistic differences. In addition, behavioral risk factors such as poor diet and physical inactivity can lead to more weight gain in BCa survivors and, hence, may play a role in the poorer survival observed in these women. BCa survivors are also known to have higher rates of obesity, especially in long term survivors, and higher rates of related comorbid conditions including cardiovascular disease. They are significantly less likely to meet physical activity guidelines after diagnosis and, we guess that less than 15% BCa survivors may be meeting these physical activity guidelines. Furthermore, we found steeper declines in physical activity levels after completing high school and college [1,2]. Overall quality of life in BCa survivors has been shown to be improved with aerobic and/or resistance exercise training programs. However, most of the evidence comes from non iranian randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Overall, there is a paucity of literature on the evaluation of exercise and lifestyle programs targeting Iranian BCa survivors on outcomes such as quality of life and on the particular setting and delivery preferences of exercise and nutritional programs in BCa survivors. A few reports suggest that Iranian cancer survivors may prefer community-based, culturally-sensitive and socio-ecologically informed programs. Furthermore, our evaluation found that email or web-based delivery of lifestyle programs may not be acceptable to BCa survivors [1]. Therefore, as mentioned above, we will evaluate the feasibility of a group-based exercise intervention at a medical cancer center in a local population of BCa survivors. The goal of this evaluation is to determine if conducting the 12-week exercise group program in BCa survivors could improve quality of life and other behavioral measures and, to elucidate the motivations, barriers and potential improvements to the program using semistructured participant interviews. We hypothesize that the program would lead to improvements in quality of life and anticipated that qualitative analysis of the participant interviews would lend insights to motivations, barriers and potential improvements to the intervention to enhance adherence in future programs [2].


References

  1. Samuel SR, Veluswamy SK, Maiya AG, Fernandes DJ, McNeely ML. Exercise-based interventions for cancer survivors in India: a systematic review. Springerplus. 2015; 4: 655.
  2. Dieli-Conwright CM, Orozco BZ. Exercise after breast cancer treatment: current perspectives. Breast Cancer (Dove Med Press). 2015; 7: 353-362.