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Variability in physical function for patients living with breast cancer during a 12-week exercise program

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Abstract

Purpose

To describe the variability during weekly performance on physical function tests during a 12-week individualized exercise program for patients with breast cancer and to test if the expected improvements in physical function surpass the minimally clinically important difference (MCID), after accounting for week-to-week variance.

Methods

Twenty-five participants, 19 years and older living with breast cancer within 2 years of their initial diagnosis, were recruited. Some participants were undergoing active treatment, while others completed their treatment. The intervention was an individualized exercise session twice a week, for 1 h each session, for a total of 12 weeks. Main outcomes tested included the 6-min walk test and chair stand test.

Results

A significant average improvement was observed in the 6MWT (p < .01) and the chair stand test (p < .001) following the intervention. Individual confidence intervals were wide across all testing measures with only 28% and 8% of participants meeting or surpassing the MCID for the 6MWT and chair stand test, respectively.

Conclusion

Despite a significant improvement in physical function during the program, the majority of patients did not reach the MCID, which could be due to large variability resulting from treatment-related side effects or measurement error.

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Code availability

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Abbreviations

MCID:

Minimally clinically important difference

6MWT:

6-Minute walk test

CSEP:

Canadian Society for Exercise Physiologists

MVPA:

Moderate to vigorous physical activity

BMI:

Body mass index

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Funding

This study was funded by Ultramar, the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, and Mitacs Accelerate Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiometabolic Exercise & Lifestyle Laboratory, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Courtni Soucy, Danielle R. Bouchard, Travis Hrubeniuk & Martin Sénéchal

  2. Faculty of Kinesiology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Courtni Soucy, Danielle R. Bouchard & Martin Sénéchal

  3. Interdisciplinary Studies, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Travis Hrubeniuk

Authors
  1. Courtni Soucy
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  2. Danielle R. Bouchard
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  3. Travis Hrubeniuk
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  4. Martin Sénéchal
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Contributions

Courtni Soucy carried out the acquisition of subjects, data collection, data interpretations, and manuscript preparation; Danielle R. Bouchard carried out data interpretation, data analysis and manuscript preparation; Travis Hrubeniuk carried out data analysis and manuscript preparation; Martin Sénéchal carried out manuscript preparation and data interpretation. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree with the order of presentation of the authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Sénéchal.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was received from Horizon Health (#2018–2567).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Soucy, C., Bouchard, D.R., Hrubeniuk, T. et al. Variability in physical function for patients living with breast cancer during a 12-week exercise program. Support Care Cancer 30, 69–76 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06394-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06394-4

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