Long-Term Yogic Intervention Improves Symptomatic Scale and Quality of Life by Reducing Inflammatory Cytokines and Oxidative Stress in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy and/or Radiotherapy: A Randomized Control Study

Mayank Jain; Archana Mishra; Vishnu Yadav; Hari Shyam; Shailendra Kumar; Satyendra K Mishra; Pooja Ramakant

doi:10.7759/cureus.33427

Long-Term Yogic Intervention Improves Symptomatic Scale and Quality of Life by Reducing Inflammatory Cytokines and Oxidative Stress in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy and/or Radiotherapy: A Randomized Control Study

Cureus. 2023 Jan 5;15(1):e33427. doi: 10.7759/cureus.33427. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Authors

Mayank Jain¹, Archana Mishra¹, Vishnu Yadav², Hari Shyam³, Shailendra Kumar¹, Satyendra K Mishra⁴, Pooja Ramakant⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Thoracic Surgery, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, IND.
² Department of Physical Education, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, IND.
³ Department of Center for Advance Research, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, IND.
⁴ Department of Human Consciousness and Yogic Sciences, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, IND.
⁵ Endocrine Surgery, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, IND.

Abstract

Introduction: Inflammation has been associated with tumor proliferation and metastasis in breast cancer. Yoga is an ancient therapy that helps in reducing inflammation and improves the patient's quality of life (QoL) and fatigue. In the current study, we investigated the effects of long-term yogic intervention at different time points on the level of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress, along with the symptomatic scale and QoL in stage II/III breast cancer patients.

Methods: Ninety-six stage II/III breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were enrolled and divided into two groups, non-yoga (Group I) and yoga (Group II). Participants in Group II practiced yoga five days per week for 48 weeks. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ30) was used to measure the QoL and symptomatic scale. Serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and oxidative stress markers, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO) were measured at baseline, 16, 32, and 48 weeks in both groups.

Results: Yoga significantly (p<0.05) reduced the level of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and MDA and improved QoL (p<0.001) and symptomatic scale (p<0.05) in Group II patients compared to Group I. NO was upregulated in Group I whereas in Group II, it was neither decreased nor increased.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that yoga may reduce levels of inflammatory cytokines and improve QoL and symptomatic scale in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Yoga can be an important additional therapy during cancer treatments to cope with treatment side effects including fatigue, depression, and immunological profile, which directly affects the patient's quality of life.

Keywords: breast cancer; immune response; inflammatory cytokines; oxidative stress; yoga.

Grants and funding

We are grateful to Ministry of Ayush, Government of India for funding this project grant no. Z.28015/225/2015-HPC (EMR)-AYUSH-B and extending their support.