Exercise as a Non-Pharmacological Therapeutic Strategy in Breast Cancer: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

The systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively evaluate the impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)-based interventions on health outcomes in patients with breast cancer. Additionally, it assessed the implementation and sustainability of these interventions in clinical and healthcare settings. A search of electronic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CNKI, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform was conducted for relevant studies published between July 2014 and July 2024. Standardized Mean Differences (SMD) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) were used to determine the effects of the interventions. The pooled effect size was calculated using a random-effects model. The RE-AIM Framework was used to evaluate the potential implementation and sustainability of the interventions in real-world settings. This systematic review incorporated 14 randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies. We found that various CBT-based interventions had positive effects on fear of cancer recurrence (SMD = -0.64; 95% CI [-1.02, -0.26]; P = 0.0011), anxiety (SMD = -0.38; 95% CI [-0.65, -0.10]; P = 0.0068), depression (SMD = -0.49; 95% CI [-0.80, -0.19]; P = 0.0017), mindfulness skills (SMD = 0.80; 95% CI [0.48, 1.13]; P < 0.0001), fatigue (SMD = -0.37; 95% CI [-0.59, -0.15]; P = 0.0011), quality of life (SMD = 0.54; 95% CI [0.14, 0.93]; P = 0.0080), sleep (SMD = -0.16; 95% CI [-0.32, -0.01]; P = 0.0398), positive psychology (SMD = 2.19; 95% CI [0.38, 4.00]; P = 0.0178) and spiritual well-being (SMD = 0.89; 95% CI [0.56, 1.21]; P < 0.0001). However, there was no significant effect on perceived stress in patients with breast cancer (SMD = -0.70; 95% CI [-1.44, 0.04]; P = 0.0634). CBT-based interventions are effective in improving the health outcomes of patients with breast cancer. Rigorously designed randomized controlled trials are needed to validate CBT-based interventions (such as personalized, long-term, and diversified intervention strategies) to optimize psychological health interventions and enhance health outcomes for these patients.

The shoulder pain and reduced range of motion caused by breast cancer seriously affect the quality of life of women. Such persistent impairments can escalate into chronic pain, diminished muscle strength, lymphedema, and compromised cardiorespiratory health potentially culminating in permanent disability. This systematic review aims to evaluate how physical exercise impacts shoulder mobility and upper limb function in breast cancer patients post-surgery, examining various aspects of exercise such as type, intensity, duration, frequency, and intervention timing to determine the influence on outcomes. A comprehensive search was conducted across seven databases up to April 16, 2024. Two reviewers independently assessed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focusing on the effects of physical exercise on postoperative outcomes in breast cancer patients. Quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, with meta-analyses and publication bias tests performed via RevMan5.4, and evidence quality evaluated using GRADEPro. Effect sizes were calculated using standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Twenty studies (25 RCTs involving 2,171 patients) were included for both the systematic review and the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis confirmed that physical exercise significantly enhanced shoulder flexion (SMD =0.59; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.86; P<0.001) and abduction (SMD =1.01; 95% CI: 0.43, 1.60; P<0.001) in postoperative patients, and improved upper limb function (SMD =0.87; 95% CI: 0.48, 1.26; P<0.001). Subgroup analyses indicated that comprehensive exercise, particularly when performed ≤3 times a week or over 8-12 weeks, was most effective for improving shoulder flexion, while shorter durations (<8 weeks) and similar frequencies were optimal for abduction. Resistance exercises, especially when started early (<2 weeks post-surgery), showed significant benefits for upper limb function. The included studies were of moderate to high quality, though some lacked detailed reporting on blinding or allocation concealment. Analysis suggests that the timing of intervention initiation, along with exercise type and frequency, may contribute to observed variations in outcomes. Evidence quality assessments did not reveal significant issues with indirectness or imprecision, and no significant publication bias was detected. Given the low heterogeneity and absence of significant downgrade factors, intermediate evidence quality was assigned for upper limb function and shoulder abduction, with high quality for shoulder flexion. Physical exercise is notably effective in enhancing both upper limb function and shoulder mobility in breast cancer patients, with the timing and frequency of exercise interventions influencing these improvements. This provides valuable evidence for clinical rehabilitation strategies.

Background:Music therapy is often used to relieve anxiety and depression in breast cancer patients, but the clinical effect of music therapy on breast cancer patients is still controversial. This study was a systematic review to investigate the effects of music intervention on anxiety, depression, pain, and quality of life in breast cancer patients.Method:A computer search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library repositories was conducted. We searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs), published in English until October 2023, on the effects of music interventions on anxiety, depressive symptoms, pain levels, and quality of life in breast cancer patients. The Cochrane Manual of Systematic Review 5.3 was used to evaluate the quality of the included references, and Stata15.0 software was selected for meta-analysis of the study indicators.Results:A total of 10 articles were included in this study, including 593 patients. Meta-analysis showed that music intervention could effectively alleviate anxiety symptoms [standardized mean difference (SMD) = –2.12, 95% confidence interval (CI): –3.17~–1.07], depression symptoms (SMD: –0.77, 95% CI: –1.47~–0.07), and pain degree (SMD: –3.47, 95% CI: –6.45~–0.48). There was no significant difference in the improvement of patients’ quality of life (SMD: –0.07, 95% CI: –0.48~0.34).Conclusion:Music intervention can effectively relieve anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with breast cancer, and reduce the degree of pain, but demonstration of its ability to improve the quality of life of patients requires additional research.

Role of Antimuscarinics Combined With Alpha-blockers in the Management of Urinary Storage Symptoms in Patients With Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Systemic inflammation and oxidative stress (OS) are associated with breast cancer. CoQ10 as an adjuvant treatment with conventional anti-cancer chemotherapy has been demonstrated to help in the inflammatory process and OS. This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) aimed to evaluate the efficacy of CoQ10 supplementation on levels of inflammatory markers, OS parameters, and matrix metalloproteinases/tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (MMPs/TIMPs) in patients with breast cancer. A systematic literature search was carried out using electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Embase, up to December 2020 to identify eligible RCTs evaluating the effect of CoQ10 supplementation on OS biomarkers, inflammatory cytokines, and MMPs/TIMPs. From 827 potential reports, 5 eligible studies consisting of 9 trials were finally included in the current meta-analysis. Quality assessment and heterogeneity tests of the selected trials were performed using the PRISMA checklist protocol and the I2 statistic, respectively. Fixed and random-effects models were assessed based on the heterogeneity tests, and pooled data were determined as the standardized mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Our meta-analysis of the pooled findings for inflammatory biomarkers of OS and MMPs showed that CoQ10 supplementation (100mg/day for 45-90days) significantly decreased the levels of VEGF [SMD:-1.88, 95% CI: (-2. 62 to-1.13); I2=93.1%, p<0.001], IL-8 [SMD:-2.24, 95% CI: (-2.68 to-1.8); I2=79.6%, p=0.001], MMP-2 [SMD:-1.49, 95% CI: (-1.85 to-1.14); I2=76.3%, p=0.005] and MMP-9 [SMD:-1.58, 95% CI: (-1.97 to-1.19); I2=79.6%, p=0.002], but no significant difference was observed between CoQ10 supplementation and control group on TNF-α [SMD:-2.30, 95% CI: (-2.50 to-2.11); I2=21.8%, p=0.280], IL-6 [SMD:-1.56, 95% CI: (-1.73 to-1.39); I2=0.0%, p=0.683], IL-1β [SMD:-3.34, 95% CI: (-3.58 to-3.11); I2=0.0%, p=0.561], catalase (CAT) [SMD: 1.40, 95% CI: (1.15 to 1.65); I2=0.0%, p=0.598], superoxide dismutase (SOD) [SMD: 2.42, 95% CI: (2.12 to 2.71); I2=0.0%, p=0.986], glutathione peroxidase (GPx) [SMD: 2.80, 95% CI: (2.49 to 3.11); I2=0.0%, p=0.543]], glutathione (GSH) [SMD: 4.71, 95% CI: (4.26 to 5.16); I2=6.1%, p=0.302] and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) [SMD:-3.20, 95% CI: (-3.53 to-2.86); I2=29.7%, p=0.233]. Overall, the findings showed that CoQ10 supplementation reduced some of the important markers of inflammation and MMPs in patients with breast cancer. However, further studies with controlled trials for other types of cancer are needed to better understand and confirm the effect of CoQ10 on tumor therapy.

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically update the evidence for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in women with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: In October 2016, PubMed, Scopus and Central were searched for randomized controlled trials on MBSR/MBCT in women with breast cancer. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life, secondary outcomes were fatigue, sleep, stress, anxiety, depressiveness and safety. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. The risk for bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Results: The Literature search identified 14 articles on 10 studies that included 1709 participants. The overall risk of bias was unclear, except for risk of low attrition bias and low other bias. Compared to usual care, significant post-intervention effects of MBSR/MBCT were found for health-related quality of life (SMD = 0.21; 95% KI = [0.04 | 0.39]), fatigue (SMD = -0.28; 95% KI = [-0.43 | -0.14]), sleep (SMD = -0.23), and quality of life (SMD = 0.21; 95% KI = [0.04 | 0.39]); 95% CI = [-0.40 | -0.05]), stress (SMD = -0.33; 95% CI = [-0.61 | -0.05]), anxiety (SMD = -0.28; 95% CI = [-0.39 | -0.16]), and depression (SMD = -0.34; 95% CI = [-0.46 | -0.21]). Significant medium-term effects were found for anxiety (SMD = -0.28; 95% KI = [-0.47 | -0.09]) and depression (SMD = -0.26; 95% KI = [-0.47 | -0.04]); long-term effects for anxiety (SMD = -0.21; 95% CI = [-0.40 | -0.03]). Other active interventions were significantly superior to MBSR/MBCT only in the short term with respect to anxiety (SMD = -0.45; 95% CI = [-0.71 | -0.18]) and depression (SMD = -0.39; 95% CI = [-0.65 | -0.14]). Subgroup analysis showed no differences between MBSR and MBCT, different disease stages or women during versus after adjuvant therapy. The effects were robust against possible methodological bias. Adverse events were insufficiently reported. Conclusions: This meta-analysis revealed evidence for the short-term effectiveness and safety of mindfulness-based interventions in women with breast cancer. However, their clinical relevance remains unclear. Further research is needed.

Breast cancer survivors with obesity are at a high risk of cancer recurrence, comorbidity, and mortality. This review aims to systematically evaluate the effects of combined aerobic and resistance training (CART) on body composition, lipid homeostasis, inflammation, adipokines, cancer-related fatigue, sleep, and quality of life in breast cancer patients and survivors with overweight/obesity. An electronic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases from inception up to January 8, 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) meeting the inclusion criteria were selected for the analysis. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess eligible studies, and the GRADE method to evaluate the quality of evidence. A random-effects model was used, and data were analyzed using mean (MD) and standardized mean differences (SMD) for continuous variables with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We assessed the data for risk of bias, heterogeneity, sensitivity, reporting bias, and quality of evidence. A total of 17 randomized controlled trials were included in the systematic review involving 1,148 female patients and survivors (mean age: 54.0 ± 3.4 years). The primary outcomes showed significant improvements in body mass index (SMD -0.57 kg/m2, p = 0.04), body fat (SMD -0.50%, p = 0.02), fat mass (SMD -0.63 kg, p = 0.04), hip circumference (MD -3.14 cm, p = 0.02), and fat-free mass (SMD 1.03 kg, p < 0.001). The secondary outcomes indicated significant increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD -0.05 mmol/L, p = 0.008), natural killer cells (SMD 0.42%, p = 0.04), reductions in triglycerides (MD -81.90 mg/dL, p < 0.01), total cholesterol (SMD -0.95 mmol/L, p < 0.01), tumor necrosis factor α (SMD -0.89 pg/mL, p = 0.03), and leptin (SMD -0.63 ng/mL, p = 0.03). Also, beneficial alterations were found in cancer-related fatigue (SMD -0.98, p = 0.03), sleep (SMD -1.17, p < 0.001), and quality of life (SMD 2.94, p = 0.02) scores. There was very low to low confidence in the estimated effect of most of the outcomes. The present findings reveal that CART could be considered an adjunct therapy in supporting the conventional clinical approach observed following exercise. However, further high-quality research is needed to evaluate whether CART would be a valuable intervention to lower aggressive pharmacologic use in breast cancer patients with overweight/obesity.

BackgroundMany breast cancer patients and survivors use yoga to cope with their disease. The aim of this review was to systematically assess and meta-analyze the evidence for effects of yoga on health-related quality of life and psychological health in breast cancer patients and survivors.MethodsMEDLINE, PsycInfo, EMBASE, CAMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were screened through February 2012. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing yoga to controls were analyzed when they assessed health-related quality of life or psychological health in breast cancer patients or survivors. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated.ResultsTwelve RCTs with a total of 742 participants were included. Seven RCTs compared yoga to no treatment; 3 RCTs compared yoga to supportive therapy; 1 RCT compared yoga to health education; and 1 RCT compared a combination of physiotherapy and yoga to physiotherapy alone. Evidence was found for short-term effects on global health-related quality of life (SMD = 0.62 [95% CI: 0.04 to 1.21]; P = 0.04), functional (SMD = 0.30 [95% CI: 0.03 to 0.57), social (SMD = 0.29 [95% CI: 0.08 to 0.50]; P < 0.01), and spiritual well-being (SMD = 0.41 [95% CI: 0.08; 0.74]; P = 0.01). These effects were, however, only present in studies with unclear or high risk of selection bias. Short-term effects on psychological health also were found: anxiety (SMD = −1.51 [95% CI: -2.47; -0.55]; P < 0.01), depression (SMD = −1.59 [95% CI: -2.68 to −0.51]; P < 0.01), perceived stress (SMD = −1.14 [95% CI:-2.16; -0.12]; P = 0.03), and psychological distress (SMD = −0.86 [95% CI:-1.50; -0.22]; P < 0.01). Subgroup analyses revealed evidence of efficacy only for yoga during active cancer treatment but not after completion of active treatment.ConclusionsThis systematic review found evidence for short-term effects of yoga in improving psychological health in breast cancer patients. The short-term effects on health-related quality of life could not be clearly distinguished from bias. Yoga can be recommended as an intervention to improve psychological health during breast cancer treatment.

In the management of patients with IC, endovascular revascularisation does not provide significant benefits compared with supervised exercise alone in terms of improvement in functional performance or QoL. Although the number of studies is small and clinical heterogeneity underlines the need for more homogenous and larger studies, evidence suggests that a synergetic effect may occur when endovascular revascularisation is combined with a conservative therapy of supervised exercise or pharmacotherapy with cilostazol: the combination therapy seems to result in greater improvements in functional performance and in QoL scores than are seen with conservative therapy alone.

Cytokines play a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of breast cancer and are increasingly recognized as potential therapeutic targets. The anti-inflammatory effects of regular exercise training are well-established, but its effects on inflammatory adipocytokines in individuals with breast cancer have not been elucidated. This systematic review and pairwise network meta-analyses aimed to (1) investigate the overall effects of exercise training on pro- and anti-inflammatory markers, and (2) compare the efficacy of different exercise modes using pairwise and network meta-analytic approaches. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were systematically searched from inception to January 2025 using four groups of keywords, including "exercise", "cytokine", "breast cancer" and "randomized". Randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of exercise training compared with a control (CON) or other modes of exercise on circulating IL-6, TNF-α, IL-10, CRP, leptin, and adiponectin in patients with breast cancer were included. Standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random-effects models for both pairwise and network meta-analyses. Twenty-four studies involving 1,192 patients with breast cancer were. Compared with CON, exercise training led to significantly larger reductions in IL-6 [SMD: -0.38, p = 0.03] and leptin [SMD: -0.77, p = 0.01], and non-significant trends toward reductions in TNF-α [SMD: -0.29, p = 0.07] and CRP [SMD: -0.47, p = 0.07], but did not affect IL-10 or adiponectin. In addition, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) reduced IL-6 [SMD: -1.06, p = 0.02], with non-significant trends toward reduced TNF-α [SMD: -0.62, p = 0.11] and increased IL-10 [SMD: 0.34, p = 0.09]. Combined training (CT) decreased TNF-α [SMD: -0.64, p = 0.008], and showed a trend towards lower leptin [SMD: -0.62, p = 0.06]. No individual exercise mode impacted CRP or adiponectin compared with CON. Exercise training appears to be effective in attenuating some markers of chronic low-grade inflammation by modulating key pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients with breast cancer, with HIIT and CT may confer superior benefits.

It is uncertain whether any interventions for increasing the use of SDM by healthcare professionals are effective because the certainty of the evidence is low or very low.

Yoga receive more attention from breast cancer patients, however its feasibility and efficacy during chemotherapy remains conflicting. We performed this systematic review to assess the effects of yoga on health-related quality, physical health and psychological health in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. A systematic search was conducted to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which investigated the comparative efficacy of yoga versus comparators such as usual care among breast cancer patients for health-related quality, physical health and psychological health in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CNETRAL), Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Chinese Biomedical Literature (CBM) Database, China Science and Technology Journal (CSTJ) Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wangfang Database from inception to December 2018. The latest search was updated on September 2020. All analyses were completed using RevMan version 5.3. Seven trials involving 693 breast cancer patients met inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis indicated a short-term improvement in fatigue [standard mean difference (SMD), -0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI), -1.17 to -0.07], sleep disturbance (SMD, -0.34; 95% CI, -0.55 to -0.12), depression (SMD, -0.50; 95% CI, -0.70 to -0.31) anxiety (SMD, -0.50; 95% CI, -0.70 to -0.31), and health-related quality of life (QoL) (SMD, 0.72; 95% CI, -0.12 to 1.56) in the yoga group; however beneficial medium- and long-term effects in fatigue, sleep disturbance were not identified. Moreover, qualitative analyses suggested that yoga was not associated with decreased adverse events (AEs) compared with control groups. Yoga may benefit to reduce fatigue, depression and anxiety, improve sleep disturbance, and improve QoL in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in the short-term; however, medium- and long-term effects should be further established owing to limitations.

Women with a diagnosis of breast cancer may experience short- and long-term disease and treatment-related adverse physiological and psychosocial outcomes. These outcomes can negatively impact prognosis, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and psychosocial and physical function. Physical activity may help to improve prognosis and may alleviate the adverse effects of adjuvant therapy. To assess effects of physical activity interventions after adjuvant therapy for women with breast cancer. We searched the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group (CBCG) Specialised Registry, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, Embase, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, on 18 September 2015. We also searched OpenGrey and Healthcare Management Information Consortium databases. We searched for randomised and quasi-randomised trials comparing physical activity interventions versus control (e.g. usual or standard care, no physical activity, no exercise, attention control, placebo) after adjuvant therapy (i.e. after completion of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, but not hormone therapy) in women with breast cancer. Two review authors independently selected studies, assessed risk of bias, and extracted data. We contacted trial authors to ask for additional information when needed. We calculated an overall effect size with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each outcome and used GRADE to assess the quality of evidence for the most important outcomes. We included 63 trials that randomised 5761 women to a physical activity intervention (n = 3239) or to a control (n = 2524). The duration of interventions ranged from 4 to 24 months, with most lasting 8 or 12 weeks (37 studies). Twenty-eight studies included aerobic exercise only, 21 involved aerobic exercise and resistance training, and seven used resistance training only. Thirty studies described the comparison group as usual or standard care, no intervention, or control. One-fifth of studies reported at least 20% intervention attrition and the average physical activity adherence was approximately 77%.No data were available on effects of physical activity on breast cancer-related and all-cause mortality, or on breast cancer recurrence. Analysis of immediately postintervention follow-up values and change from baseline to end of intervention scores revealed that physical activity interventions resulted in significant small-to-moderate improvements in HRQoL (standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.39, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.57, 22 studies, 1996 women; SMD 0.78, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.17, 14 studies, 1459 women, respectively; low-quality evidence), emotional function (SMD 0.21, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.32, 26 studies, 2102 women, moderate-quality evidence; SMD 0.31, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.53, 15 studies, 1579 women, respectively; low-quality evidence), perceived physical function (SMD 0.33, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.49, 25 studies, 2129 women; SMD 0.60, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.97, 13 studies, 1433 women, respectively; moderate-quality evidence), anxiety (SMD -0.57, 95% CI -0.95 to -0.19, 7 studies, 326 women; SMD -0.37, 95% CI -0.63 to -0.12, 4 studies, 235 women, respectively; low-quality evidence), and cardiorespiratory fitness (SMD 0.44, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.58, 23 studies, 1265 women, moderate-quality evidence; SMD 0.83, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.27, 9 studies, 863 women, respectively; very low-quality evidence).Investigators reported few minor adverse events.Small improvements in physical activity interventions were sustained for three months or longer postintervention in fatigue (SMD -0.43, 95% CI -0.60 to -0.26; SMD -0.47, 95% CI -0.84 to -0.11, respectively), cardiorespiratory fitness (SMD 0.36, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.69; SMD 0.42, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.79, respectively), and self-reported physical activity (SMD 0.44, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.72; SMD 0.51, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.93, respectively) for both follow-up values and change from baseline scores.However, evidence of heterogeneity across trials was due to variation in intervention components (i.e. mode, frequency, intensity, duration of intervention and sessions) and measures used to assess outcomes. All trials reviewed were at high risk of performance bias, and most were also at high risk of detection, attrition, and selection bias. In light of the aforementioned issues, we determined that the evidence was of very low, low, or moderate quality. No conclusions regarding breast cancer-related and all-cause mortality or breast cancer recurrence were possible. However, physical activity interventions may have small-to-moderate beneficial effects on HRQoL, and on emotional or perceived physical and social function, anxiety, cardiorespiratory fitness, and self-reported and objectively measured physical activity. The positive results reported in the current review must be interpreted cautiously owing to very low-to-moderate quality of evidence, heterogeneity of interventions and outcome measures, imprecision of some estimates, and risk of bias in many trials. Future studies with low risk of bias are required to determine the optimal combination of physical activity modes, frequencies, intensities, and durations needed to improve specific outcomes among women who have undergone adjuvant therapy.

There is little evidence on the effects of exercise interventions in people with cancer who are receiving RT alone. While all included studies reported benefits for the exercise intervention groups in all assessed outcomes, our analyses did not consistently support this evidence. There was low-certainty evidence that exercise improved fatigue in all three studies. Regarding physical performance, our analysis showed very low-certainty evidence of a difference favouring exercise in two studies, and very low-certainty evidence of no difference in one study. We found very low-certainty evidence of little or no difference between the effects of exercise and no exercise on quality of life or psychosocial effects. We downgraded the certainty of the evidence for possible outcome reporting bias, imprecision due to small sample sizes in a small number of studies, and indirectness of outcomes. In summary, exercise may have some beneficial outcomes in people with cancer who are receiving RT alone, but the evidence supporting this statement is of low certainty. There is a need for high-quality research on this topic.

Heterogeneity across studies makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for this population. There is an immediate need for rigorous trials with process evaluations and clearer, detailed intervention descriptions. Cost-effectiveness studies should be conducted alongside future trials.