Exercise for cancer-related fatigue. What do the guidelines say?

Fatigue is one of the most reported symptoms related to cancer or cancer treatment. One method of reducing cancer-related fatigue is exercise. There is a strong body of evidence that people who have had cancer report less fatigue after participating in exercise programs and report less fatigue than people who do not exercise. This does not mean exercise eliminates fatigue but does suggest that it can reduce it.

‘Exercise’ is a very broad term and hearing exercise is good for everything gets very boring. What about the detail?

What type of exercise is best? There are different types of exercise that can reduce fatigue. So general advice is to pick any activity that you enjoy and can maintain. Having said that, sometimes it can be good to think about what is contributing to fatigue. If you have experienced a loss of muscle mass after cancer and treatment (this is very common), then strength-based exercises can be very worthwhile. If you feel like your fitness or aerobic capacity has declined after treatment, then aerobic activities like walking, swimming, and jogging or running (yay!) can be very good.

How intense does exercise need to be? Not necessarily that high. Lighter intensity exercise, like brisk walking or slow jogging, may be as effective as high intensity exercise – and it shouldn’t exacerbate fatigue in the same way high intensity exercise can. Having said this, performing shorter bouts of moderate or high intensity exercise, like jogging or running for a minute then walking for a minute can be a more tolerable way of exercising at higher intensities.

How much exercise should you perform? Guidelines typically recommend performing moderate or vigorous exercise 2 – 3 times per week and doing something lighter on most days. Having said this, current evidence does not necessarily say more is best. Again, it appears more likely that maintaining and enjoying exercise over time is more worthwhile than doing a lot of exercise in a short amount of time.

Where can you do exercise? With Can Walk Can Run of course! Our free, community-based walking and running program for people living with and beyond cancer will be commencing again on April 1st.

Content for this post has been appropriated from the Exercise and Sport Science Australia position statement here: https://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(18)31270-2/fulltext as well as the American College of Sports Medicine Guideline here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8576825/