Focht, B.C., Clinton, S.K., Devor, S.T., Garver, M.J., Lucas, A.R., Thomas-Ahner, J.M., & Grainger, E. (2013). Resistance exercise interventions during and following cancer treatment: A systematic review. Journal of Supportive Oncology, 11, 45–60.
Pertaining to fatigue outcomes, two randomized, controlled design studies showed insignificant changes in fatigue with BRCA survivors. One nonrandomized trial showed insignificant change in patients with prostate cancer. Two randomized, controlled studies showed moderate to large effect sizes in patients with BRCA and prostate cancer patients over time after three and six months. Large effects were seen in the Schmidt study with BRCA survivors. A moderate effect was seen in the Segal study of patients with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy. Small effect sizes were seen in BRCA patients undergoing chemotherapy at a midpoint and post-treatment.
The results of this study suggested that RE may improve fatigue in patients with BRCA undergoing chemotherapy, patients with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy, and in BRCA survivors.
Although methodologic quality was good overall, an increase of intent-to-treat analyses of future randomized, controlled trials is needed.
Few studies examined this type of exercise, and additional study is indicated.