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Supportive Care in Cancer
Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer 4/2013

01-04-2013 | Original Article

Randomised controlled trial to determine the benefit of daily home-based exercise in addition to self-care in the management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema: a feasibility study

Authors: Eunice Jeffs, Theresa Wiseman

Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer | Issue 4/2013

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Abstract

Exercise is considered to be a key aspect of lymphoedema treatment, although there is little evidence for the therapeutic effect of exercise in managing breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL). This small randomised controlled trial (RCT) was designed to determine the feasibility, prior to undertaking a larger RCT, of researching a daily home-based exercise programme to treat stable BCRL. An experimental design compared the exercise intervention combined with standard lymphoedema self-care to self-care alone over a 6-month period. Twenty-three women with stable unilateral BCRL of ≥10 % excess limb volume (ELV) were randomly allocated to a daily home-based exercise programme and self-care (n = 11) or self-care measures alone (n = 12). The primary objective was to determine difference in limb volume reduction for the two groups. Secondary objectives were to monitor change in other areas that impact BCRL: quality of life, arm function and range of shoulder movement. All 23 women completed the trial, providing full data for each time point. The intervention group showed a clinically and statistically significant improvement in relative ELV at week 26 (95 % confidence interval (CI) −26.57 to −5.12), whereas the control group improvement crossed the line of no effect (95 %CI −17.71 to 1.1). This study demonstrated the feasibility of conducting a RCT of exercise as a therapeutic intervention in the management of BCRL. Although the sample was small, the results support the findings of other exercise studies which have shown trends towards improvement.
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Metadata
Title
Randomised controlled trial to determine the benefit of daily home-based exercise in addition to self-care in the management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema: a feasibility study
Authors
Eunice Jeffs
Theresa Wiseman
Publication date
01-04-2013
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Supportive Care in Cancer / Issue 4/2013
Print ISSN: 0941-4355
Electronic ISSN: 1433-7339
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-012-1621-6

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