Exercise Training for Advanced Lung Cancer
It is common for patients with advanced lung cancer to have severe symptoms, and it has been stated that this problem, combined with the effects of treatment, may reduce the patient's ability to exercise. Exercise capacity is also an important indicator in treatment because it can be used to assess a person's overall health.
According to the results of this study, there is evidence that exercise training can improve exercise capacity, muscle strength and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with lung cancer.
Peddle-McIntyre CJ, Singh F, Thomas R, Newton RU, Galvão DA, Cavalheri V. Exercise training for advanced lung cancer. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019, Issue 2 Number: CD012685. doi: 10.1002 / 14651858.CD012685.pub2.
The study
The assessment of exercise capacity in this study was defined as the distance walked, or peak oxygen uptake, as measured during a 6-minute walk test.
A maximal incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test was also performed.
Six RCTs involving 221 participants were reviewed, with the mean age of participants ranging from 59 to 70 years, and sample sizes ranging from 20 to 111 participants.
Overall, we found that the risk of bias in the included studies was high and the quality of evidence for all outcomes was low.
Pooled data from the four studies showed that at the end of the intervention period, the intervention group had significantly higher exercise capacity (6MWD) than the control group. (Mean difference (MD) 63.33m, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.70 to 122.96)
At the end of the intervention period, the disease-specific HRQoL was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control group. (Standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.51, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.93)
There were no significant differences in physical function HRQoL (SMD 0.11, 95% CI -0.36 to 0.58), dyspnea (SMD -0.27, 95% CI -0.64 to 0.10), and fatigue (SMD 0.03, 95%) between the intervention and control groups. There is no significant difference.
Conclusion
The results showed the effectiveness of exercise training for patients with advanced lung cancer, but there seemed to be no psychological effects, although there were physical effects.
