A randomized, controlled trial of aerobic exercise for treatment-related fatigue in men receiving radical external beam radiotherapy for localized prostate carcinoma
✍ Scribed by Phyllis M. Windsor; Kathleen F. Nicol; Joan Potter
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 109 KB
- Volume
- 101
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0008-543X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Background:
Advice to rest and take things easy if patients become fatigued during radiotherapy may be detrimental. aerobic walking improves physical functioning and has been an intervention for chemotherapy-related fatigue. a prospective, randomized, controlled trial was performed to determine whether aerobic exercise would reduce the incidence of fatigue and prevent deterioration in physical functioning during radiotherapy for localized prostate carcinoma.
Methods:
Sixty-six men were randomized before they received radical radiotherapy for localized prostate carcinoma, with 33 men randomized to an exercise group and 33 men randomized to a control group. outcome measures were fatigue and distance walked in a modified shuttle test before and after radiotherapy.
Results:
There were no significant between group differences noted with regard to fatigue scores at baseline (p = 0.55) or after 4 weeks of radiotherapy (p = 0.18). men in the control group had significant increases in fatigue scores from baseline to the end of radiotherapy (p = 0.013), with no significant increases observed in the exercise group (p = 0.203). a nonsignificant reduction (2.4%) in shuttle test distance at the end of radiotherapy was observed in the control group; however, in the exercise group, there was a significant increase (13.2%) in distance walked (p = 0.0003).
Conclusions:
Men who followed advice to rest and take things easy if they became fatigued demonstrated a slight deterioration in physical functioning and a significant increase in fatigue at the end of radiotherapy. home-based, moderate-intensity walking produced a significant improvement in physical functioning with no significant increase in fatigue. improved physical functioning may be necessary to combat radiation fatigue.