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PurposeThe number of cancer survivors worldwide is growing, with over 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States alone-a figure expected to double in the coming decades. Cancer survivors face unique health challenges as a result of their cancer diagnosis and the impact of treatments on their physical and mental well-being. For example, cancer survivors often experience declines in physical functioning and quality of life while facing an increased risk of cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality compared with persons without cancer. The 2010 American College of Sports Medicine Roundtable was among the first reports to conclude that cancer survivors could safely engage in enough exercise training to improve physical fitness and restore physical functioning, enhance quality of life, and mitigate cancer-related fatigue.MethodsA second Roundtable was convened in 2018 to advance exercise recommendations beyond public health guidelines and toward prescriptive programs specific to cancer type, treatments, and/or outcomes.ResultsOverall findings retained the conclusions that exercise training and testing were generally safe for cancer survivors and that every survivor should "avoid inactivity." Enough evidence was available to conclude that specific doses of aerobic, combined aerobic plus resistance training, and/or resistance training could improve common cancer-related health outcomes, including anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, physical functioning, and health-related quality of life. Implications for other outcomes, such as peripheral neuropathy and cognitive functioning, remain uncertain.ConclusionsThe proposed recommendations should serve as a guide for the fitness and health care professional working with cancer survivors. More research is needed to fill remaining gaps in knowledge to better serve cancer survivors, as well as fitness and health care professionals, to improve clinical practice.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine mediators of fatigue response to an exercise intervention for breast cancer survivors in a pilot randomized controlled trial. Methods: Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors (n = 46; ≤stage 2), off primary treatment, and reporting fatigue and/or sleep dysfunction were randomized to a 3-month exercise intervention (160 min•wk-1 of moderate-intensity aerobic walking, twice weekly resistance training with resistance bands) or control group. Six discussion group sessions provided behavioral support to improve adherence. Fatigue, serum cytokines, accelerometer physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, sleep dysfunction, and psychosocial factors were assessed at baseline and 3 months. Results: The exercise intervention effect sizes for fatigue were as follows: fatigue intensity d = 0.30 (P = 0.34), interference d = -0.38 (P = 0.22), and general fatigue d = -0.49 (P = 0.13). Using the Freedman-Schatzkin difference-in-coefficients tests, increase in fatigue intensity was significantly mediated by interleukin 6 (IL-6) (82%), IL-10 (94%), IL-6/IL-10 (49%), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α):IL-10 (78%) with reduced sleep dysfunction increasing the relationship between intervention and fatigue intensity rather than mediating intervention effects (-88%). Decrease in fatigue interference was mediated by sleep dysfunction (35%), whereas IL-10 and pro-anti-inflammatory cytokine ratios increased the relationship between intervention and interference (-25% to -40%). The reduction in general fatigue was significantly mediated by minutes of physical activity (76%), sleep dysfunction (45%), and physical activity enjoyment (40%), with IL-10 (-40%) and IL-6/IL-10 (-11%) increasing the intervention-fatigue relationship. In the intervention group, higher baseline fatigue, anxiety, depression, and perceived exercise barrier interference predicted a greater decline in fatigue interference and/or general fatigue during the intervention. Conclusions: Biobehavioral factors mediated and enhanced intervention effects on fatigue, whereas psychosocial factors predicted fatigue response. Further study is warranted to confirm our results and to improve understanding of relationships that mediate and strengthen the intervention-fatigue association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study that identifies key demographic and health factors associated with physical activity (PA) participation in adults diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes recruited from the Canadian Diabetes Association of Alberta, Canada. The study uses multiple and logistic regression models to identify demographic and health factors related to PA levels, and the analyses were conducted separately for type 1 and type 2 groups. The study shows that a 63.7% of those with type 1 and 71.9% for those with type 2 diabetes were not achieving recommended PA levels.