Acute Effects of Exercise to Mitigate Cancer-Related Fatigue: A State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by cancer survivors. While exercise interventions have shown efficacy in reducing CRF, the acute effect of exercise on CRF is not well understood. In this state-of-the-art review, we first provided historical context for the potential for exercise to provide immediate relief of CRF by summarizing plausible physiological and psychological mechanisms, then reviewed studies that have been done to date examining the acute effects of exercise on CRF, and finally, suggested directions for future research.