(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments can leave patients feeling weary and fatigued -- both mentally and physically. New research shows getting up and breaking a sweat could help cancer patients fight those tired feelings.

In a review of 28 prior studies on cancer-related fatigue, researchers concluded simple exercise could combat fatigue more effectively than the usual care provided to patients, including medications and rest. Patients describe the fatigue as a weighed-down feeling and constant lack of energy that can result in lack of interest in work and family life.

“A lot of the time, the medical response to patients is that they should expect to be fatigued, that it is a normal side effect. If patients are told that fatigue is just a side effect and to accept it, what they are not getting is any advice or support to help them cope,” lead review author Fiona Cramp, Ph.D., lecturer at the University of West England in Bristol, was quoted as saying.
 

While a wide variety of exercise activities, intensities and duration were examined, no optimal “prescription” was determined. Researchers say further study needs to be done to better understand what exercise program is best for cancer patients.

“I think it’s safe to say at this point that the sort of generalized guidelines of walking 30 minutes a day three to five times a week generally helps patients,” exercise researcher Karen Mustian was quoted as saying. “We can’t say what specific doses are best. With the evidence currently out there, we can’t say much beyond that.”

SOURCE: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 2