Exercise training during chemotherapy preserves skeletal muscle fiber area, capillarization, and mitochondrial content in patients with breast cancer

What is it about?

The beneficial effects of exercise training to improve human health in healthy and diseased populations have been established. However, knowledge regarding the molecular basis of exercise training adaptation in patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy is lacking. High-intensity interval training has been shown to be an effective training modality in the past decade. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess muscle adaptations to two different training programs both including high-intensity interval training in patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy, compared to a third group undergoing usual care (i.e. chemotherapy only). _x000D_ Our findings indicate that patients in the exercise groups exhibited specific skeletal muscle adaptations to exercise training opposite to the declines in muscle function displayed by the usual care group. Therefore, it seems to be of great importance to implement exercise programs for patients with breast cancer during chemotherapy to prevent the negative side effects of chemotherapy and inactivity, and to preserve skeletal muscle mass and function which may improve quality of life of this population.

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