Physical exercises for breast cancer survivors: effects of 10 weeks of training on upper limb circumferences

Abstract

[Purpose] The aims of this study were to verify the effects on upper limb circumferences and total body extracellular water of 10 weeks of Nordic Walking (NW) and Walking (W), both alone and combined with a series of exercises created for breast cancer survivors, the ISA method. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty breast cancer survivors were randomly assigned to 4 different training groups and evaluated for upper limb circumferences, total body and extracellular water. [Results] The breast cancer survivors who performed NW, alone and combined with the ISA method, and Walking combined with the ISA method (but not alone) showed significantly reduced arm and forearm circumferences homolateral to the surgical intervention. [Conclusion] For breast cancer survivors, NW, alone and combined with the ISA method, and Walking combined with the ISA method should be prescribed to prevent the onset and to treat light forms of upper limb lymphedema because Walking training practiced alone had no significant effect on upper limb circumference reduction.

Nordic walking for women with breast cancer: A systematic review

“…The initial search resulted in the finding of 76 investigations. After reading the titles and the abstracts, 36 potential studies were identified, 9 of which were included in the final analysis (Figure ; Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, ; Di Blasio, Morano, Napolitano, et al, ; Fields, Richardson, Hopkinson, & Fenlon, ; Fischer et al, ; Hanuszkiewicz, Malicka, Barczyk‐Pawelec, & Woźniewski, ; Hanuszkiewicz, Malicka, & Woźniewski, ; Jönsson & Johansson, , ; Malicka et al, ).…”

“…A total of five investigations provided information about the effects of NW in lymphedemas (14,15,17–19 Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, ; Di Blasio, Morano, Napolitano, et al, ; Jönsson & Johansson, ; Jönsson & Johansson, ; Malicka et al, ) Four of them returned significant positive effects after the exercise programme, which was manifested in a reduction of extracellular fluid (trivial to small ES) and the circumference of the arm (trivial to large ES) (Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, ; Di Blasio, Morano, Napolitano, et al, ), as well as the lymphedema absolute volume (trivial ES) and lymphedema relative volume (trivial ES; Jönsson & Johansson, , ).…”

“…Significant changes in different variables were observed after the performance of the proposed NW programmes in eight of the nine analysed studies (Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, 2016b;Di Blasio, Morano, Napolitano, et al, 2016a;Fischer et al, 2015;Hanuszkiewicz et al, 2015Hanuszkiewicz et al, , 2014Jönsson & Johansson, 2009Malicka et al, 2011; Table 3). The ES of the different studies is presented in Table 4.…”

“…The four RCTs analysed (Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, 2016b;Di Blasio, Morano, Napolitano, et al, 2016a;Fields et al, 2016;Malicka et al, 2011) showed a fair methodological quality (Table 1), while the five quasi-experimental studies (Fischer et al, 2015;Hanuszkiewicz et al, 2015Hanuszkiewicz et al, , 2014Jönsson & Johansson, 2009) obtained a score ranging from "fair" (Fischer et al, 2015;Jönsson & Johansson, 2014) to "poor" (18) ( Table 2).…”

“…The intensity of the exercise was mainly controlled checking the beats per minute, and the NW was mainly performed at 70%-80% of the maximum HR. Two studies (Di Blasio, Morano, Bucci, et al, 2016b;Fields et al, 2016) used the Borg 6-to-20 rate of perceived exertion scale, establishing the intensity between 10 and 14. Five studies informed about the way in which the progression of the training programme initially described was controlled.…”