High-Intensity Exercise During Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Improves Survival
Women who did high-intensity interval training, also called HITT, along with resistance training during chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer had better overall survival and better disease-free survival, according to results from the OptiTrain study presented at the ESMO Congress 2024.
A HITT workout consists of several rounds of short, high-intensity bursts of cardio exercise followed by short rest periods – peddling a bike as fast as you can for one minute and then resting for 30 seconds, for example.
Overall survival is how long a person lives whether or not the cancer comes back (recurrence). Disease-free survival is how long a person lives before the cancer comes back.
Key takeaways
Out of 240 women, 10 women who didn’t exercise had died within nine years, compared to two women who did HITT workouts plus resistance training.
Thirteen women who didn’t exercise had a recurrence within nine years, compared to three women who did HITT workouts plus resistance training.
What this means for you
Although it can be hard to think about exercise while you’re receiving chemotherapy, this study shows how important exercise can be for your prognosis, or the results of treatment.
“The results of this study support exercise as a cornerstone of supportive care during chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer,” Helene Rundqvist, PhD, senior researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said during her presentation of the study.
HITT workouts can be overwhelming at first for some people. You also want to make sure you exercise safely while you’re receiving chemotherapy. So if you want to try HITT, you may want to find a trainer who has experience working with people in cancer treatment.
About the study
The OptiTrain study included 240 Swedish women who were receiving chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer between 2013 and 2016.
The researchers randomly assigned the women to one of three exercise groups: HITT plus resistance exercise, HITT plus moderate aerobic exercise (think brisk walking), or usual care, which was no prescribed exercise.
The women in the two HITT groups did 60-minute training sessions twice a week for 16 weeks and were supervised by an exercise physiologist or an oncology nurse to make sure the exercises were done safely and using correct techniques.
For both groups, the HITT consisted of three, three-minute sets of high-intensity cycling. Each high-intensity set was followed by a one-minute set of low-intensity cycling.
For women who did HITT and resistance work, the resistance training targeted the major muscle groups and included leg presses, biceps curls, and lunges, among other things.
For women who did HIIT and moderate aerobic exercise, the aerobic exercise was 20 minutes of moderate-intensity biking, walking, or elliptical training.
Detailed results
About 80% of women in the HITT and resistance training group and 75% of women in the HITT and aerobic exercise group completed the programs.
After about nine years of follow up, women who did either HITT exercise program were more likely to be alive than women in the usual care group.
Women who did the HITT and resistance program were much less likely to have a recurrence than women in the other two groups.
Both of these differences were statistically significant, which means that the better survival and recurrence rates were likely due to the difference in exercise and not just because of chance.
Rundqvist, H., et al. Effects of a high-intensity exercise intervention on recurrence and survival: The OptiTrain breast cancer trial. Abstract 232O. ESMO 2024
— Last updated on March 26, 2025 at 11:01 PM