Exercise during chemotherapy: Friend or foe?

Abstract Background A higher chemotherapy completion rate is associated with better outcomes including treatment efficacy and overall survival. Exercise may have the potential to improve relative dose intensity (RDI) by reducing the frequency and severity of chemotherapy‐related toxicities. We examined the association between exercise adherence and RDI and possible clinical‐ and health‐related fitness predictors of RDI. Methods Chemotherapy records were extracted from the electronic medical record for patients enrolled in the ENACT trial (n = 105). Chemotherapy completion was assessed using average RDI. A threshold of 85% was established for “high” versus “low” RDI. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between the clinical‐ and health‐related fitness predictors of RDI. Results Patients with breast cancer (BC) had a significantly higher average RDI (89.8% ± 17.6%) compared with gastrointestinal cancer (GI) (76.8% ± 20.9%, p = 0.004) and pancreatic cancer (PC) (65.2% ± 20.1%, p