IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF AN EXERCISE REHABILITATION TRAINING FOR BREAST-CANCER PATIENTS

Physical exercise does not only have positive effects on physical fitn ess but also on mental health. However, there has been little empirica l study on effects of rehabilitation programmes based on physical exer cise in cancer patients. We conducted a study to examine the interrela tion between the participation of breast cancer patients in an exercis e rehabilitation training and aspects of quality of life and physical fitness, 28 patients with not metastasized mamma carcinoma participate d in a structured exercise rehabilitation program twice a week for ten weeks. Before and after the intervention the patients were asked to f ill in questionnaires to assess their quality of life. At the same ins tants they underwent physical examination and a bicycle ergometry as w ell as a blood drawing, The training was aimed at changes at the socia l, emotional, as well as the motor physical level. Pre-post comparison s demonstrated an improvement in quality of life, such as decreased le vels of depression and anxiety, Furthermore the women proved to show a n obvious increase in physical fitness. Present results support an imp lementation of an exercise rehabilitation training for breast cancer o utpatients.