Is cardiorespiratory fitness related to quality of life in survivors of breast cancer?
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether indices of cardiorespiratory fitness are related to quality of life (QOL) in women survivors of breast cancer. Using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-30 questionnaire, we assessed the QOL of 16 participants (age, 50 +/- 9 years; body mass, 66.6 +/- 9.6 kg). All participants performed incremental cycle ergometer exercise to determine several indices of cardiorespiratory fitness (e.g., peak oxygen uptake [.V(O2)peak, in L.min(-1), ml.kg(-1).min(-1)]), peak power output (PPO, in W), PPO/ body mass (W.kg(-1), peak heart rate (HRpeak, b.min(-1), peak ventilation (VEpeak), and .V(O2) and heart rate (HR) at the ventilatory (VT) and respiratory compensation (RCT) thresholds. Relationships between QOL and variables were assessed using Spearman rank-difference correlation tests. A significant inverse relationship (p < 0.05) was found for QOL scores and values for age (years) and body mass (kg) ( = -0.53), %HRp
