Introduction: Exercise intolerance is common among cancer patients undergoing active treatments. We conducted a pilot study in patients receiving potentially cardiotoxic therapies to investigate the impact of participation in a 6-month physical activity intervention (PAI) versus a healthy lifestyle education control intervention (HLI) on accelerometer-derived measures of PA (steps/day or minutes of moderate to vigorous PA [MVPA]/week) and whether these measures were associated with submaximal exercise capacity (6-minute walk distance [6MWD]).
Methods: Participants with breast cancer or lymphoma (n = 33) were randomized (2:1) into PAI or HLI groups. Exercise training was patient-centered, tailored by treatment and functional status. Objective assessments of PA (steps/day, MVPA/week), and submaximal exercise capacity (6MWD) were completed at baseline, 3-, and 6-months. Descriptive statistics were used to examine changes in PA and 6MWD. T-tests were used to examine differences in 6MWD between groups at 3- and 6-months.
Results: At baseline, 27 participants in the PAI (n = 20) and HLI (n = 7) groups who completed baseline and at least 1 follow up visit, had a mean age of 53 (range: 23-76) vs 56 (range: 40-77) years, took on average 8,330 ± 2520 vs 7800 ± 3830 steps/day, did an average of 133 ± 44 vs 109 ± 87 minutes of MVPA/week, and had a mean 6MWD of 496 ± 94 vs 440 ± 18 meters, respectively. At 3- and 6-months there was a 87m and 76m difference in 6MWD by intervention group. A correlation analysis did find significant associations between steps/day (r = 0.51, p = .04) and 6MWD at 3-months.
Conclusions: Baseline data indicate that, on average, our study sample was close to meeting the PA guidelines. Unexpectedly, both groups maintained their activity levels up to 3- and 6-months. Submaximal exercise capacity (6MWD) was also maintained (with a clinically meaningful but not statistically significant relative benefit in the PAI) suggesting higher PA levels may associate with reduced exercise intolerance after anthracycline therapy.
Copyright: © 2025 Antonucci et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.