Can physical activity improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for breast cancer?

About 9,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Sweden each year, and the number has been steadily increasing
since the 1990s.
However, the prognosis for breast cancer has improved, and more and more women can now be cured
with a combination of surgery, radiation therapy and medication.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is increasingly used for breast cancer
.
The best evidence of the efficacy of NACT is the pathological complete response (pCR), i.
e.
, the absence of invasive tumors
after surgical histopathology after NACT.

Jana de Boniface, researcher of the MMK Breast Surgery Research Group, principal investigator of the trial and associate professor in the breast surgery group of the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, said: "It is well known that physical activity can help patients better tolerate often demanding cancer treatments, but understanding whether and how exercise can play a role in fighting tumors and improving tumor outcomes is an emerging area of research
.
”

Recruitment for the new ACT trial began in September 2022 and is expected to be completed
in December 2025.