Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges for the oncology health care system. The need to improve patients’ Quality of Life (QoL) through exercise, which is related to survival and healing, has increased, especially during lockdowns. Technologies are often used to help with patient care as well as to monitor exercise training. This case study, developed during the pandemic period, aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a proposed home-based combined training (CT) regimen, supervised through online lessons, in increasing QoL and fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant therapy. Additionally, we evaluated the effect of exercise on psychological and functional parameters. Methods: Two breast cancer (BC) survivors were required to participate in 2 h/week of supervised and home-based CT for 16 weeks. Results: Improvements were found in the emotional function of QoL (10% in patient A; 70% in patient B) and in all variables of fatigue (physical fatigue 66% in patient A; 33% in patient B). Conclusion: The findings from this study revealed positive effects of CT on QoL and fatigue perception in BC women undergoing therapy. Both patients attended all training sessions with no adverse events, showing the sustainability of this training as an alternative and affordable method that is capable of improving patients’ wellbeing.
Highlights
A growing body of evidence support the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) in the management and survival of breast cancer patients either during or after treatment
A great decrease in fatigue perception is evidenced by the EORTC FA-12; there is a reduction of 50% in physical fatigue and cognitive fatigue and a decrease of 100% of emotional fatigue and interference with daily life
Our results highlight the effectiveness of a monitored online combined training (CT) protocol in improving Quality of Life (QoL) and fatigue perception in breast cancer (BC) patients undergoing therapy
Summary
A growing body of evidence support the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) in the management and survival of breast cancer patients either during or after treatment. Several studies have highlighted the positive effect of PA on Quality of Life (QoL), showing that it improves psychological, functional and cognitive functions [1,2,3]. Combined training (CT) has been shown to induce more positive effects compared to other types of exercise intervention [2]. Despite these well-documented benefits, a breast cancer diagnosis is generally followed by a decrease in PA, with a large number of patients being unable to achieve the recommended level of PA [4]. It is a priority to identify a new method to engage these patients in suitable and effective home-based PA programs
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