SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1593165
Effects of exercise interventions on bone health and body composition in postmenopausal women with breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second People's Hospital of Liaocheng, Liaocheng, China
- 2The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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Objective: To evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on bone health and body composition in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CENTRAL, and CNKI databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before October 2024. Data from eligible studies were extracted and analyzed using STATA software. Results: Eight RCTs comprising 1099 participants were included. The results indicated no significant differences between exercise and control interventions in patients' bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine (WMD = 0.116, 95% CI [-0.357, 0.589], p = 0.631), femoral neck (WMD = -0.214, 95% CI [-0.497, 0.068], p = 0.137), or total hip (WMD = 0.299, 95% CI [-0.283, 0.882], p = 0.314). For body composition parameters, exercise interventions led to significant improvements in lean mass (WMD = 0.192, 95% CI [0.023, 0.362], p = 0.026) and marked reductions in percent body fat (WMD = -1.327, 95% CI [-2.587, -0.066], p = 0.039) compared to the control. However, no significant differences were observed in body weight (WMD = -0.024, 95% CI [-0.193, 0.146], p = 0.784) or fat mass (WMD = -0.078, 95% CI [-0.703, 0.546], p = 0.806) between the two interventions. Conclusion: The current evidence suggested that exercise interventions effectively improve lean mass and reduce percent body fat but have a limited impact on BMD in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. A multimodal, individualized exercise program is recommended to address the challenges of bone health and body composition in this population.
Keywords: Exercise Intervention, breast cancer, bone mineral density, Body Composition, Meta - analysis
Received: 13 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Gao, Yi and Hei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jingyou Hei, Second People's Hospital of Liaocheng, Liaocheng, China
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