Fitness combats chemo

EXERCISING during cancer treatment can protect the heart against accelerated ageing from the toxic but lifesaving therapy, new research has found.

A world-first trial by The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute found the hearts of breast cancer patients who exercised during chemotherapy were protected, while the cardiac function of those who weren’t active aged by the equivalent of six years after three months of therapy.

Preliminary findings from a follow-up to the pilot study show this ageing may not be reversible, further strengthening the advice that cardio and strength-based exercise is vital to safeguard the health of cancer patients.

Lead researcher and head of sports cardiology at The Baker, Associate Professor Andre La Gerche, said given that women whose breast cancer was caught in its early stages were more likely to die from heart disease than from the cancer, it was important to find ways to minimise heart damage.

The Baker recruited 30 patients. Half were told to follow a healthy lifestyle, including exercise. The rest were given two supervised exercise sessions a week and a homebased program to follow for four months after they received anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

The preliminary findings, presented today at the Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference, found overall, the heart did not pump as well after chemotherapy. When the heart was stressed with exercise and VO2 max test results were compared, they found that the ability to use oxygen in non-exercisers fell by 17 per cent.

“It’s quite significant because the drop in fitness is the equivalent of what you’d see in six years of normal ageing, and that was occurring in three months of chemotherapy,” Associate Prof La Gerche said. “Ageing six years actually corresponds to six years of life lost.”

Associate Prof La Gerche said the exercise test pre-treatment could also accurately predict who was most at-risk during chemotherapy, improving prevention programs.

They are now recruiting 100 women for a randomised trial looking at the impact of a year of exercise on the heart and muscles after chemotherapy.