The most prevalent type of sickness affecting women is breast cancer.

One in eight Australian women will receive a diagnosis by the time they are 85 years old. Despite its potential to cause cancer-related fatigue and significantly affect patients' quality of life, including their emotional, physical, and social wellness, radiotherapy has become a crucial part of treating breast cancer.

However, new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) suggests that exercise can help patients tolerate radiotherapy better.

89 women were enrolled in the study by ECU's Exercise Medicine Research Institute, and 43 of them finished a 12-week home exercise programme that included one to two sessions of weight training and a total of 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic activity per week. The patients who were left served as a control group and were not given the exercise regimen.

In contrast to the control group, patients who exercised recovered from cancer-related fatigue more quickly during and after radiotherapy, and their health-related quality of life significantly improved.

The workout had no unfavourable impacts that were noted. This, according to study supervisor Professor Rob Newton, demonstrated that resistance and aerobic exercise performed at home while receiving radiotherapy is secure, practical, and efficient in hastening the recovery from cancer-related fatigue and enhancing the health-related quality of life.

"A home-based protocol might be preferable for patients, as it is low-cost, does not require travel or in-person supervision, and can be performed at a time and location of the patient's choosing," he said. "These benefits may provide substantial comfort to patients."

Important changes

According to the country's most recent national guidelines, cancer patients in Australia should engage in either vigorously intense aerobic exercise for 20 minutes per day on three days of the week or moderately intense aerobic exercise for 30 minutes per day, five days a week.

Additionally, they recommend performing 8-10 strength-training activities for 8-12 repetitions each, two three days a week.

Dr Georgios Mavropalias, the study's principal investigator, said advantages might still be shown with less exercise. "The amount of exercise was aimed to increase progressively, with the ultimate target of participants meeting the national guideline for recommended exercise levels," he said.

"However, the exercise programs were relative to the participants' fitness capacity, and we found even much smaller dosages of exercise than those recommended in the national guidelines can have significant effects on cancer-related fatigue and health-related quality of living during and after radiotherapy."

The study also found once participants began an exercise program, most stuck with it. The exercise group reported significant improvements in mild, moderate, and vigorous physical activity up to 12 months after the supervised exercise program finished.

"The exercise program in this study seems to have induced changes in the participants' behaviour around physical activity," Dr Mavropalias said.

"Thus, apart from the direct beneficial effects on reduction in cancer-related fatigue and improving health-related quality of life during radiotherapy, home-based exercise protocols might result in changes in the physical activity of participants that persist well after the end of the program."

'The effects of home-based exercise therapy for breast cancer-related fatigue induced by radical radiotherapy' was published in Breast Cancer.