Dying cancer patients had less fatigue and their physical symptoms improved when they had physical therapy three times a week.
Control group patients who were not included in the PT program had both physical symptoms and quality of life get worse, even over two weeks of observation.
Patients in the study were part of a hospice program in Poland.
The team from the Palliative Medicine Department at the Medical University of Gdańsk in Poland wrote,
Our analysis showed that, on average, after 3 weeks of kinesitherapy, a significant decrease of the intensity of fatigue was observed, while in the control group, it increased after 2 weeks of observation. The obtained results provide evidence that a planned set of exercises decreases cancer-related fatigue effectively.
SOURCE: Buss et al., Supportive Care in Cancer, Volume 18, Number 6, June 2010.


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