Effectiveness of specific types of structured physical activities in the rehabilitation of post-mastectomy women: a systematic review

Around 40% of post-mastectomy women meet the requirements of general guideline recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity as a sufficient minimum for adults. However, Kyu et al. disagree with this concept in their systematic review of literature on energy expenditure, claiming it to be insufficient in breast cancer prevention.

The aim of the present study is to determine which specific type of physical activity is most commonly pursued among post-mastectomy women, as well as which type of exercise proves the most beneficial for those patients.

One hundred and ten original papers were identified in all 4 research databases, out of which 8 were subjected to final evaluation. The exercise programs under evaluation comprised aerobic exercise (n = 4), muscle strengthening exercise (n = 2), and mixed aerobic and muscle strengthening activities (n = 2). Aerobic exercises were established as the most frequently pursued type of physical activity in post-mastectomy women.

Presently, the task of credibly evaluating overall effectiveness of rehabilitation programs featuring different types of physical activities proves rather challenging, as there is still no consensus as to the actual methods of designing a set of uniformly structured evaluation tools to be applied by all investigators.