Women taking vital aromatase inhibitors often suffer from symptoms such as joint pain; new research suggests there may be a simple solution.
A research team concluded moderate daily exercise could help relieve the uncomfortable side effects, a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute news release reported.
The team looked at 121 postmenopausal women who were on aromatase inhibitors and rated their pain as mild or greater on a uniform questionnaire. Sixty-one of the participants were asked to engage in two supervised strength training sessions and 150 minutes of aerobic exercise every week.
After a year the joint pain scores in the group of women who engaged in disciplined exercise dropped by 20 percent, the other group just saw a three percent. The severity and debilitating qualities of the pain also significantly decreased in the exercise group.
"This is one of the first studies to identify an approach - particularly a non-medical approach - that can effectively lower joint pain for these patients," the study's senior author, Jennifer Ligibel, MD, of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber, said. "Exercise offers an attractive option for patients who want to continue taking these drugs but who are burdened by their side effects."
Aromatase inhibitors are recommended for all post-menopausal women who have been diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which means estrogen triggers the cancer cells to grow and divide.
"Joint pain, or arthralgia, which occurs in up to half of breast cancer patients who take aromatase inhibitors, is one of the major drawbacks of these drugs," Ligibel said in the news release. "The pain leads many to discontinue the drugs, which can increase the chance that the cancer will return. Identifying a way to help women tolerate these drugs is a very important finding."
For the study Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers teamed up with Yale University investigators; they will present their findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
