ABSTRACT

Purpose: Therapeutic approaches that will improve cardiopulmonary capacity and survival rate of BC survivors are pressing concern. This study compared the effects of aerobic exercise on selected cardiopulmonary parameters in premenopausal and postmenopausal BC survivors with that of stretching exercise.

Relevance: The incidence rate of breast cancer (BC) has continued to rise with low survival rate in economically developing countries. Reduction in cardiopulmonary capacity of BC Survivors, which is positively associated with premature death, is a major problem associated with the disease.

Subjects: Seventy-four female BC survivors with stage I, II and III BC were recruited through referrals from the Radiotherapy and Oncology Department of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos state, Nigeria.

Methods: Informed consent was obtained from each of the subjects and ethical approval was obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of LUTH. The subjects were randomly assigned to 3 groups and each group was further subdivided into subgroups 1 and 2 based on their menopausal status. Group A underwent aerobic exercise using treadmill, Group B - stretching exercises and Group C (control group) had no therapeutic exercise intervention but had group educational and counseling sessions with subjects in the other groups for 30 minutes, once every week. Therapeutic exercise duration began at 15 minutes for weeks 1 – 3 and systematically increased by 5 minutes after every 3 weeks. Frequency of therapeutic exercises was 3 times a week and the study lasted for 12 weeks.

Data Analysis: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to analyse data. Paired t test was used to compare the changes in the selected variables of the different groups. The significance level was set at p < 0.05.

Results: Following 12 weeks intervention, significant improvements were observed in the cardiovascular variables of Groups A_(1&2) - Resting systolic blood pressure: (A₁: p = 0.00*; A₂: p = 0.01*), Resting diastolic blood pressure: (A₁: p = 0.03*; A₂: p = 0.01*) and Resting rate pressure product: (A₁: p = 0.01*; A₂: p = 0.00*). Significant improvements were observed in the cardiovascular variables of Group B₍₂₎ but not in Group B₍₁₎- RSBP: (B₁:p = 0.12; B₂: p = 0.03*), RDBP: (B₁: p = 0.09; B₂: p = 0.02*) and RRPP: (B₁: p = 0.12; B₂: p = 0.04*). As for the pulmonary variables, significant improvements were observed in Arterioxyhaemoglobin saturation (SaO₂) of Group A₍₂₎ ( p = 0.05*) and Forced vital capacity (FVC) of Group B₍₁₎ (p = 0.02*). Improvements in the cardiovascular variables of Groups A were more in the premenopausal BC survivors than those of the postmenopausal BC survivors while the reverse was the case for Group B. No improvement was observed in any of the cardiopulmonary parameters of Groups C_(1&2). On comparison between the changes brought about by aerobic and stretching exercises, there were significant differences in the RSBP: (A₁ & B₁: p = 0.02*), RRPP: (A₁ & B₁: p = 0.01*) and VO₂Max: (A₁ & B₁: p = 0.04*) of the premenopausal study groups as well as in the RRPP: (A₂ & B₂: p = 0.02*) and FVC: (A₂ & B₂: p = 0.02*) of the postmenopausal study groups.

Conclusion: Aerobic exercise brought about more significant therapeutic effects on selected cardiovascular variables especially of the premenopausal BC survivors than stretching exercise.

Implication for Physiotherapy/Policy: Physiotherapists should take more active roles in the management of breast cancer survivors.

Keywords: Exercises, Cardiopulmonary, Breast cancer.

Funding: This work was unfunded by any organisation or institution.

Ethical Consideration: Ethical approval was obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos.