The Yale Fitness Intervention Trial in female cancer survivors: Cardiovascular and physiological outcomes.
M Tish Knobf, Sangchoon Jeon, Barbara Smith and 5 others
PMID 28803675WHAT IT FOUND
In 139 female cancer survivors, supervised aerobic-resistance exercise at a fitness center improved treadmill time and heart-rate recovery more than home physical activity, while blood pressure did not differ.
Key findings
01The fitness center group had significantly greater improvement in treadmill time at 6 months than the home-based group (P = .039).
02Heart rate recovery at 1 minute after peak exercise improved significantly more in the fitness center group after controlling for baseline peak heart rate and age (P = .028).
03There were no significant differences in blood pressure between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 139 of 154 enrolled women were evaluable. The sample was 85.7% White, 70% married, 82.8% employed, and 83.1% had breast cancer, so it may not represent all cancer survivors. Cardiovascular fitness was assessed at baseline and 6 months, not at 12 months. Physical activity declined during the unsupervised last 6 months, so longer-term effects are uncertain. The average age was 51.9 years, relatively young across the age spectrum of women with cancer. Baseline groups differed in triglycerides and peak heart rate, which could affect comparisons. Sub-analyses by endocrine therapy were limited by sample size. No long-term cancer or cardiovascular event outcomes were measured.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this exercise programme prevents cardiovascular events or cancer recurrence. The trial measured treadmill time, heart-rate recovery, blood pressure, physical activity, and metabolic markers, not long-term cancer outcomes, and it had no cardiovascular assessment at 12 months.