Cardiorespiratory fitness in breast cancer patients: a call for normative values.
Review
Overview
abstract
BACKGROUND: There is emerging evidence that adjuvant treatments for breast cancer negatively impact cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) or Vo2max, a key predictor of cardiovascular risk. Although a number of studies have measured CRF in breast cancer patients, there is currently limited data regarding expected CRF values in this patient population. Given that CRF is a poor prognostic sign and recently highlighted as a key measure to standardize by the American Heart Association, we sought to review the available literature on CRF among breast cancer patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: We identified 27 clinical trials and observational studies measuring Vo2max in the pre- and post-adjuvant treatment setting for breast cancer. We compared Vo2max before to Vo2max after adjuvant therapy and compared Vo2max in female breast cancer patients with Vo2max in healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: We found that CRF was substantially lower in women with a history of breast cancer compared with healthy women and this was most pronounced among breast cancer patients in the post-adjuvant setting. We conclude that knowledge of normative CRF values is critical to tailor appropriately timed exercise interventions in breast cancer patients susceptible to low CRF and subsequent cardiovascular risk.
