Early exercise program improves shoulder function after breast cancer surgery

Initiating a 1-month tailored exercise intervention immediately following breast cancer surgery is beneficial in terms of shoulder function recovery, according to a study.

A total of 56 patients (mean age 50.3 years), with early-stage breast cancer who were scheduled for partial or total mastectomy, were randomly assigned to undergo a tailored resistance exercise program (n=28) or receive usual care (n=28) for 1 month. The intervention was initiated at day 1 following surgery.

The exercise intervention consisted of four supervised exercise education sessions corresponding with surgeon visits and daily home-based exercises for the first postoperative month. The exercises, including stretching and strength workouts, were adjusted based on individual shoulder function recovery status.

The primary endpoints were shoulder range of movement (ROM) and strength at 1 and 6 months postsurgery. Other outcomes assessed included physical activity, body composition, and quality of life at 6 months.

A total of 54 patients completed the trial (96 percent), with 100 percent and 97 percent compliance to supervised and home-based exercise sessions, respectively. Significantly more patients in the exercise group than in the usual care group had fully recovered shoulder strength at 1 month postsurgery (67.9 percent vs 3.6 percent; p<0.001).

At 6 months, full recovery of shoulder ROM occurred in 76.8 percent of patients in the exercise group as opposed to only 21.4 percent in the usual care group (p<0.001). Likewise, the proportion of patient with full recovery of shoulder strength was higher in the exercise group than in the usual care group (85.7 percent vs 17.9 percent; p<0.001).

Finally, patients in the exercise group had less muscle mass loss, with improved physical activity and quality of life, compared with those in the usual care group.