Hello, I am Dr. Maurie Markman, from City of HopeUSA. On this occasion I will briefly comment on a very provocative and important issue related to the secondary prevention of cancer. It is an article published in Nature Medicine whose subject is the titled supervised, structured and individualized exercise in metastatic breast cancer.[1]
We all know that exercise is important. It is certainly important for well -being and in people with cardiovascular diseases; There are population data that indicate that those who exercise and suffer from cancer could have less risk of recurrence.
However, this concrete analysis was based on a randomized controlled trial where 357 patients with metastatic breast cancer and life expectancy of six months or more without unstable bone metastases were analyzed. Obviously we do not talk about a population at risk of having an unfavorable prognosis due to bone metastases.
Eight study centers from five European countries and Australia were recruited. The participants were randomized one by one to the usual care, according to which 179 would exercise as they chose in front of a nine -month supervised exercise program for 178 patients. Again it is an acceptable population that was randomized and we assume, properly stratified according to the different aspects of the disease.
The conclusion was that there was a very significant difference from the statistical point of view, comparing the change from the beginning to three, six (main valuation criteria) and nine months between groups in terms of significant positive effects on physical fatigue, as well as on the quality of life measured.
-Once again it is a randomized controlled trial, so it is the best we can get when making these comparisons. We do not refer to improvement in the risk of recurrence; That is very difficult to measure. Nor do we talk about survival, but about quality of life and fatigue, very important issues in metastatic context and breast cancer, no doubt.
These are solid data that indicate that a relatively low cost intervention can have an impact on the quality of life and the measurement of fatigue.
We have a very interesting article and analysis that in my opinion should be discussed in the community of clinical oncology to see how we can use this type of strategies more in order to positively influence cancer patients we treat.
Thank you very much for your attention.
This content translated from the English edition of Medscape.
