The research comes in line with previous studies that garner benefits of exercise in cancer patients, but have yielded mixed results.
To investigate, Dr. Vicki S. Conn and her colleagues combined the findings of 30 previous studies that investigated the effects of exercise on cancer patients. Thirteen of the studies were conducted with breast cancer patients, while 21 looked at supervised exercise rather than at-home workouts.
After the analysis, researchers found that exercise had the strongest effect on boosting the patients' physical function, such as improving their ability to climb stairs or walk a certain distance. It also improved the patients' body composition, increasing the percentage of lean muscle mass to total weight.
Though regular workouts also helped reduce some symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting and pain in cancer patients and researchers noted that there were modest improvements in fatigue, mood and quality of life.
Given the relatively small benefits for exercise identified by their analysis, Conn and her colleagues suggest combining exercise with other inventions designed to improve cancer patients' physical and mental health.
"Overall, the data support the potential efficacy of exercise interventions among cancer patients," Conn and her colleagues write in July issue of Supportive Care in Cancer.
"Controlled experiments testing variations in intervention components and delivery are urgently needed to move forward our understanding of effective strategies to improve health and well being outcomes in this population," they wrote.
