Abstract

Introduction: treatment of breast cancer with chemotherapy has psycho-physical effects that have a great impact on the quality of life of patients. Objectives: to understand the effectiveness of physical exercises in mitigating side-effects of chemotherapy. Method: this study presents a systematical analyses of randomised controlled trials which have at least one group of patients who is affected by breast cancer, who is undergoing a chemotherapy treatment and to whom physical exercises (strength or resistance) are performed. Results and conclusions: on a selection of twenty-two cases, the most commonly performed exercise was the aerobical one, alone or complemented with resistance exercises. Key variables investigated were fatigue, quality of life and depression. The investigation shows that, while in the short run the exercises performed are successful in containing the deterioration of the variables analyzed, in the long run substantial improvements on psychological variables are recorded among patients.