Exercise for fatigue in breast cancer patients: An umbrella review of systematic reviews.

The review only included English or Chinese publications, so relevant trials in other languages may have been missed. It relied on earlier systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and negative trials may not have been reported or captured. Most included trials assessed short-term fatigue, usually less than 6 months, while cancer-related fatigue can be chronic. Participants and staff could not be blinded to exercise, which may have introduced bias. Exercise types, doses, patient stages, treatment modalities and fatigue scales varied widely, so results are hard to compare. Evidence quality was low or moderate for most fatigue outcomes, so findings should not be treated as definitive.

Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the National Research Training Program of Gansu Provincial Hospital. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that exercise is proven to reduce fatigue for every breast cancer patient or that Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong and Pilates are ineffective. The review found aerobic and resistance exercise beneficial, but evidence quality was mostly low or moderate, three reviews found no significant difference, and evidence for other exercise types was limited.