One more rep! The case for resistance training in young cancer survivors

Nemanja Lakicevic; Salvatore Ficarra; Sonia Ortega-Gómez; David Jiménez-Pavón; Zoi Asimakopoulou; Apostolos Vantarakis; Paula Tavares; Vasco Vaz; Joshua Thaller; Sofia Papakonstantinou; Musa Kirkar; Francesca Glorioso; Antonio Palma; Antonino Bianco

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1284052

One more rep! The case for resistance training in young cancer survivors

Front Oncol. 2023 Dec 4:13:1284052. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1284052. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Nemanja Lakicevic¹, Salvatore Ficarra¹, Sonia Ortega-Gómez^{2

3

4}, David Jiménez-Pavón^{2

3

4}, Zoi Asimakopoulou⁵, Apostolos Vantarakis⁵, Paula Tavares⁶, Vasco Vaz⁶, Joshua Thaller⁷, Sofia Papakonstantinou⁸, Musa Kirkar⁹, Francesca Glorioso¹⁰, Antonio Palma¹, Antonino Bianco¹

Affiliations

¹ Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Unit, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
² MOVE-IT Research Group, Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain.
³ Biomedical Research and Innovation Institute of Cadiz (INiBICA), Cadiz, Spain.
⁴ CIBER of Frailty and Healthy Aging (CIBERFES), Madrid, Spain.
⁵ Department of Public Health, Medical School, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
⁶ Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education and ICBR Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁷ Department of Health Consulting, Research and Science, Outdoor Against Cancer, Munich, Germany.
⁸ Creative Thinking Development (CRE.THI.DEV), Rafina, Greece.
⁹ Centro Internazionale per la Promozione dell'educazione e lo Sviluppo (CEIPES), Palermo, Italy.
¹⁰ Lega Italiana per la lotta Contro i Tumori (LILT Palermo), Palermo, Italy.

Abstract

Resistance training is now seen as a powerful tool to improve the health and functionality of cancer survivors. Literature shows that it can be implemented both during and after cancer treatment, with the intent of preserving muscle mass in the former and increasing muscle mass in the latter case. However, currently available data on this matter are predominantly derived from adult cancer survivors (ACS), and it is questionable whether the exact same raining regimen should be implemented in young cancer survivors (YCS) given the unique challenges they experience throughout their disease trajectory. Therefore, the goal of this work is to distill the existing evidence on resistance training (RT) interventions in ACS and facilitate discussion on whether the same patterns of RT can be applied in YCS.

Keywords: cancer; exercise oncology; muscle tissue; resistance training; strength training.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The current article is funded by European Commission Project – EU4HEALTH “Outdoor Against Cancer Connects Us” – Project number 101056984.