Exercise can reduce the often debilitating fatigue that cancer patients experience during chemotherapy, new research shows.

The study from Denmark found that people being treated for cancer are likely to benefit from a supervised exercise program that combines high intensity exercises (resistance training and aerobics) with low intensity activities (relaxation, body awareness, and message therapy).

The payoff, according to the study published this week in the British Medical Journal, could be less fatigue and a greater feeling of well-being during chemotherapy.

Previous research into the benefits of exercise for cancer patients has been limited and the results mixed, the study team notes. Few studies have included patients in the midst of difficult chemotherapy treatments. Most have focused on women with breast cancer who were challenged by a moderate intensity program of just one activity such as riding a stationary bike. None included a program like this Danish study that combined vigorous, high intensity exercises with a low intensity regimen.

Researchers Lis Adamsen and Tom Møller from Copenhagen University Hospitals and associates recruited to their study 265 men and women undergoing chemotherapy between 2004 and 2007.

They randomly assigned the study subjects to a control group or a 6-week supervised exercise program consisting of 9 hours per week of high and low intensity cardiovascular and resistance training, relaxation and body awareness and massage.

Compared with the non-exercisers, the exercisers experienced significantly less fatigue, “more vitality,” and improved aerobic capacity and muscle strength.

While concluding that the combo exercise program was “feasible, safe and beneficial,” the researchers acknowledge it wasn’t for everyone.

For instance, a participant with brain cancer was dropped from the trial after experiencing a seizure during high intensity exercise. The patient was admitted to the hospital, recovered and was discharged the same day. The authors advise that patients with brain tumors or brain metastases not participate in high intensity exercise programs.

In general, however, the results show that a combination of high and low intensity exercises for chemotherapy patients can improve physical function and mental well being, and relieve fatigue, the investigators say.

Although all of the study participants were white Caucasians, Adamsen and Møller told Reuters Health in an email: “We are convinced that all races of both genders might benefit from the intervention.”

At the end of the clinical trial, Copenhagen University Hospitals made the combination exercise program a regular part of cancer treatment. Adamsen and Møller said more than 800 patients have participated to date.

“We have received more requests from cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who wanted to participate, than the exercise programme has been able to accommodate,” they said.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, online October 14, 2009.