Physical Activity and Cancer Cachexia

Background: Cancer Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by a loss of lean muscle mass that cannot be fully reversed. Patients experience poor survival (Martin, 2013) and no standard intervention or treatment exists (Fearon, 2011). Exercise is known to improve cardiorespiratory function (Battaglini, 2014) and health related quality of life outcomes (Maddocks, 2014), yet more research is needed on cancer cachexia (Grande, 2014).

Aims: To examine the effects of physical activity on patient physical fitness, body composition and inflammation.

Method: Eighty-seven patients (aged 63 ±10y) volunteered for the physical activity program and were medically cleared for exercise by their oncologist. Patients completed an 8x2h multi-component, physical activity program. All activities were relevant to activities of daily living. Dietary advice, home diaries and pedometers were provided to monitor home based activities.

Results: Pre-post standardized assessments of aerobic fitness (Chester Step test), fatigue (EORT-C) and Physical Activity Levels (pedometer Steps) significantly (p 0.05) improved pre-post intervention, with a 13% improvement in patients` quality of life. Body composition (Tanita MC 180MA) remained stable. Patient post-program inflammation levels, as measured by the Glasgow Prognostic Score, improved by 22% but failed to reach statistical significance.

Discussion: These data indicate that lifestyle-based physical activity programs can contribute to the quality of life, physical activity and physical fitness levels of all types of cancer patients. Our patients maintained a stable body mass, and indications of a trend for decreasing levels of inflammation were promising, demonstrating physical activity as a potential use in the prevention of cancer cachexia.