Clinical trial reveals improved self-reported cognitive function in women with breast cancer who started an exercise program when initiating chemotherapy.
Many women who receive chemotherapy experience a decreased ability to remember, concentrate, and/or think—commonly referred to as “chemo-brain” or “brain fog”—both short- and long-term. In a recent clinical trial of women initiating chemotherapy for breast cancer, those who simultaneously started an aerobic exercise program self-reported greater improvements in cognitive function and quality of life compared with those receiving standard care. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
The study, called the Aerobic exercise and CogniTIVe functioning in women with breAsT cancEr (ACTIVATE) trial, included 57 Canadian women in Ottawa and Vancouver who were diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer and beginning chemotherapy. All women participated in 12–24 weeks of aerobic exercise: 28 started this exercise when initiating chemotherapy and 29 started after chemotherapy completion. Cognitive function assessments were conducted before chemotherapy initiation and after chemotherapy completion (therefore, before the latter group started the exercise program).
Women who participated in the aerobic exercise program during chemotherapy self-reported better cognitive functioning and felt their mental abilities improved compared with those who received standard care without exercise. Neuropsychological testing—a performance-based method used to measure a range of mental functions—revealed similar cognitive performance in the two groups after chemotherapy completion, however.
https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cncr.35540
