Effects of exercise interventions on bone health and body composition in postmenopausal women with breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

TL;DR

Exercise helps postmenopausal breast cancer patients gain lean mass and reduce body fat, but has little effect on bone density.

Contribution

This study provides a meta-analysis of exercise effects on bone health and body composition in postmenopausal breast cancer women.

Findings

Exercise interventions significantly improved lean mass in postmenopausal breast cancer patients.

Percent body fat was significantly reduced with exercise compared to control groups.

No significant changes in bone mineral density at key skeletal sites were observed.

Abstract

To evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on bone health and body composition in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.

A systematic search was conducted across PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CENTRAL, and CNKI databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before October 2024. Data from eligible studies were extracted and analyzed using STATA software.

Eight RCTs comprising 1099 participants were included. The results indicated no significant differences between exercise and control interventions in patients’ bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine (WMD = 0.116, 95% CI [-0.357, 0.589], p = 0.631), femoral neck (WMD = -0.214, 95% CI [-0.497, 0.068], p = 0.137), or total hip (WMD = 0.299, 95% CI [-0.283, 0.882], p = 0.314). For body composition parameters, exercise interventions led to significant improvements in lean mass (WMD = 0.192, 95% CI [0.023, 0.362], p = 0.026) and marked reductions in percent body fat (WMD = -1.327, 95% CI [-2.587, -0.066], p = 0.039) compared to the control. However, no significant differences were observed in body weight (WMD = -0.024, 95% CI [-0.193, 0.146], p = 0.784) or fat mass (WMD = -0.078, 95% CI [-0.703, 0.546], p = 0.806) between the two interventions.

The current evidence suggested that exercise interventions effectively improve lean mass and reduce percent body fat but have a limited impact on BMD in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. A multimodal, individualized exercise program is recommended to address the challenges of bone health and body composition in this population.

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42024613744.

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