A Model Program: Exercise Intervention for Cancer Rehabilitation

Abstract

Recent advances in cancer detection and treatment have resulted in an increase in the survival rate of individuals diagnosed with cancer. The increased survival rate brings new challenges for increasing the quality of life for cancer survivors. Debilitating side effects can result from the cancer itself and the cancer treatment. The negative effects lead to decreased functional (work) capacity, increased fatigue, and debilitating muscular weakness. There have been very positive benefits seen from the use of individualized prescriptive exercise intervention in alleviating these cancer treatment related symptoms. The role of exercise intervention as a complementary therapy is just emerging. Studies have shown that exercise decreases the amount of fatigue, improves functional capacity, increases immune function, and leads to improved quality of life. The effects of cancer and cancer treatments require that an exercise intervention program be well based in sound scientific principles. The exercise intervention needs to be carefully structured and controlled. All patients should be assessed and reassessed to evaluate progress. A cancer exercise specialist should closely monitor the exercise regime. Exercise should involve a whole-body approach that emphasizes all areas of fitness. Exercise therapy for cancer patients is a new and exciting area that will continue to grow as medical professionals realize the necessity for post-cancer treatment intervention to improve quality of life.

"Did the trial kill the intervention?" experiences from the development, implementation and evaluation of a complex intervention

“…A number of staff working on the unit had identified a need for more structured rehabilitation that might include not only support for patients' physical problems but also would address some of the perceived social and psychological needs of these patients. A programme of rehabilitation based on evidence from both the cancer and cardiac rehabilitation literature (for example [5-7]) was put together by a small group of nursing and physiotherapy staff working in collaboration with the rest of the clinical team and patients who had previously undergone stem cell transplant. The programme was piloted by these staff members who felt it was a viable model of routine service delivery and observed positive effects among the small number of patients who undertook the pilot programme.…”

Exercise as a Time-conditioning Effector in Chronic Disease: a Complementary Treatment Strategy

“…In fact, exercise has been used to improve shoulder mobility after breast cancer surgery (10), to help maintain the energy balance during adjuvant chemotherapy (4,11) and to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors (12,13). Leung et al .…”

Ten weeks of home-based exercise attenuates symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer patients

“…It is plausible that exercise would attenuate symptoms of CIPN, as both short term and long term exercise have been shown to have a local effect on peripheral nerves, inducing positive changes in both the vasculature and metabolic systems. 18 Numerous studies on the effect of exercise in populations with diabetic peripheral neuropathy have also produced promising results, 14-16 further supporting this hypothesis.…”