Exercise Alleviates Adverse Effects of ADT in Prostate Cancer Patients

Exercise can help alleviate adverse effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients with prostate cancer, according to a recent meta-analysis.

Patients with prostate cancer who initiate ADT tend to experience adverse effects from the therapy. Existing research has shown that exercise can improve quality of life and fatigue caused by therapy.
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Therefore, to better understand the effects of exercise in this population, the researchers evaluated 1135 patients enrolled in 15 studies. Data was obtained via Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed databases, through March 10, 2017.

The researchers defined the outcomes of the analysis as changes in body composition, physical function, bone health, and cardiometabolic function. A subgroup analysis was performed to analyze the duration and type of exercise correlated with improvement in adverse effects. Standard mean difference and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

Results indicated that exercise significantly benefitted participants’ upper and lower body strength, exercise tolerance, fatigue, ADT-related obesity, body mass index (BMI), and sexual function. However, the researchers observed no benefit for cardiometabolic changes and bone health and no systematic difference between resistance exercise training (RET) and aerobic exercise training (AET) in ADT-related obesity, fatigue, and exercise tolerance.

“Exercise can significantly improve the upper and lower muscle strength, increase exercise tolerance, help [prostate cancer] patients receiving ADT control their body fat mass, BMI, and keep the sex function,” the researchers concluded. “ADT-related fatigue is correlated with exercise duration time. No differences were observed in [lean body mass], bone mineral density, and any other metabolic blood markers. Available data show that there is no difference between AET and RET.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Yunfeng G, Weiyang H, Xueyang H, Yilong H, Xin G. Exercise overcome adverse effects among prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy: an update meta-analysis. Medicine. 2017;96(27):e7368. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000007368.