Yoga during and after cancer treatment
Gentle yoga combining postures, breathing and relaxation reduces fatigue, anxiety and low mood and improves sleep and quality of life, in many randomised trials mostly in women with breast cancer. Guidelines recommend it during treatment for anxiety and fatigue.
Overview
A Cochrane review of 24 randomised trials in women with breast cancer found moderate-quality evidence that yoga improves health-related quality of life and reduces fatigue and sleep disturbance compared with no intervention, and reduces depression and anxiety compared with psychosocial or educational controls. The 2024 SIO-ASCO fatigue guideline recommends yoga for fatigue during treatment (and, with lower certainty, after), and the 2023 anxiety and depression guideline recommends it for anxiety and depressive symptoms during treatment. Most trials are of hatha or Iyengar-derived programmes of six to twelve weeks with trained instructors; hot yoga and vigorous styles have not been tested. Yoga is one form of physical activity and does not replace aerobic and resistance exercise, which have the survival-related evidence.
How it works
Slow movement, breath regulation and relaxation lower sympathetic arousal and inflammatory signalling and improve sleep, mood and perceived energy; the group setting adds social support.
- Cochrane-level evidence for quality of life and fatigue
- Recommended in SIO-ASCO 2023 and 2024
- Adaptable to limited mobility
- Evidence concentrated in breast cancer
- Blinding impossible; controls vary
- Instructor training in oncology matters
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"Yoga during and after cancer treatment" OR ABSTRACT:"Yoga during and after cancer treatment") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Yoga during and after cancer treatment, not a curated reading list.
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