The Impact of Exercise during Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer on Fatigue and Quality of Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background Radiation therapy (RT) is clinically proven to improve survival in men with prostate cancer. Despite these advantages, it is known to cause adverse effects such as fatigue. This review proposes to summarize the totality of evidence from randomized controlled trials regarding the effectiveness of exercise on fatigue in men with prostate cancer as a primary outcome. Quality of life was a secondary outcome. Methods RCTs that explored the effect of exercise during RT on fatigue for men with prostate cancer were searched using MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, AMED, ClinicalTrials.gov , and ISRTCN registry. Reference lists of included studies and reviews were also examined. Trials were excluded if they included a mixed cohort of patients where data could not be extracted for prostate cancer patients alone or if the intervention took place after RT had finished. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standardized reporting guidelines were followed to ensure the standardised conduct and reporting of the research. Results The search strategy yielded a total of 278 studies, of which five met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis pooled data of 392 participants using the Cochrane Review Manager 5.3 random-effects model (DerSimonian-Laird approach) with the post-test means of the control and intervention groups and associated standard deviations. Exercise was significant at alleviating fatigue when compared to the control group (standardized mean differences, −1.03; 95% confidence interval, −1.82 to −0.24). Conclusion Exercise during RT is an effective approach to alleviate fatigue in men with prostate cancer. The effect on quality of life was not significant, possibly because of considerable heterogeneity across studies.