Effects of resistance exercise in elderly cancer patients

Objective: To investigate the effects of resistance exercise (RE) in elderly cancer patients (ECPs).

Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select 240 ECPs, who received radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Department of Oncology of a Level-A tertiary hospital in Shanghai from September 2019 to August 2020, and they were randomized to control (CON) and experimental (EXP). After a 12-week intervention, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F), the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIMSM) were used to evaluate the effects of RE in two groups.

Results: After 12-week intervention, the total FIMSM score and the scores of self-care, transfers, locomotion, communication, and social cognition of EXP was higher than before, and compared with CON (P<0.05). However, the intervention did not effectively improve the sphincter control (P>0.05). The SF-36 and CD-RISC scores of EXP were higher than those of CON, and FACIT-F score was lower than that of CON with statistically significant differences (P<0.05).

Conclusion: RE effectively relieved the cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in ECPs, improved their mental state, quality of life and mobility.