Sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in cancer-related fatigue: More evidence for a physiological substrate in cancer survivors
Section snippets
Participants
The study data were drawn from the baseline sample of a clinical trial addressing the potential benefits of yoga for breast cancer survivors, and participants were recruited through breast cancer clinics and media announcements. Women could not participate in our study if they were currently practicing yoga, took yoga classes within the last 6 months, or practiced yoga for more than 3 months over their lifetime. Eligible women had completed treatment for stage 0–IIIA breast cancer within the
Results
Table 1 reports descriptive information for the 109 participants.
Fatigued and nonfatigued participants did not differ by treatment type, cancer stage, time since diagnosis, time since last treatment, age, activity level, Her2 receptor status, progesterone receptor status, estrogen receptor status, tamoxifan/aromatase use, or albumin and hemoglobin levels. The 6 participants who had any Charlson-rated comorbidities were divided equally between the fatigued and nonfatigued groups. As would be
Discussion
Cancer-related fatigue is a notable clinical problem that can affect cancer survivors many years beyond treatment, and thus a better understanding of the factors that contribute to its development and maintenance is important. Women who reported more fatigue had significantly higher norepinephrine and lower HRV before and after the stressor than women who reported less fatigue, providing evidence that fatigue is associated with a maladaptive autonomic profile characterized by higher sympathetic
Role of the funding sources
Work on this paper was supported in part by NIH grants R01CA126857, R01 CA131029, NCRR Grant UL1RR025755, which funds the Clinical Research Center, the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center Core Grant CA16058, and an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant PF-11-007-01-CPPB awarded to the first author.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no financial interests or relationships that pose potential conflicts of interest with this article.
Acknowledgements
We appreciate the helpful assistance of Heather Preston, Cathie Atkinson, and Lindsay Madaras.
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