Can physical exercise enhance the effect of chemotherapy against breast cancer?

Approximately 9,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in Sweden, a number that has been steadily increasing since the 1990s. However, the prognosis for breast cancer has improved, more and more women can now be cured with a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and medical treatment.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is increasingly used in breast cancer. The best proof of NACT efficacy is pathological complete response (pCR), i.e. the absence of invasive tumour on post-NACT on surgical histopathology. "While it is known that physical exercise can help patients to better tolerate often harsh cancer treatments, it is an emerging area of research to understand if and how exercise exerts anti-tumour effects and improves oncological outcomes", says Jana de Boniface, principal investigator of the trial and associate professor in the Breast Surgery Group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.

The Neo-ACT trial opened for recruitment in September 2022, and it is estimated that inclusion may be completed in December 2025. A trial protocol has been published in the journal PLOS One.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

19.10.2022

News • IC before CRT

Cervical cancer: Improved treatment course increases survival, reduces recurrence

New trial results suggest that a short course of induction chemotherapy prior to chemoradiation could reduce the rate of relapse and death among patients with locally advanced cervical cancer.

News • Relapse rate research

Breast cancer: Fertility preservation measures do not increase recurrence risk

A new study shows that women with a breast cancer diagnosis undergoing procedures for fertility preservation are not at increased risk of recurrence of the disease or disease-specific mortality.

News • Making tumours susceptible to chemo

Breast cancer: target protein may hold key to therapy success

A rare variant of a protein present in nearly all human cells may hold the key to improving the effectiveness of breast cancer treatment, according to University of Manchester research.