Abstract 5260: Association between physical activity interventions after a genitourinary cancer diagnosis and incidences of depression and anxiety: A scoping study
Authors: Grob Sydney , McGrath Colleen B. , Mucci Lorelei A. 
Published: June 2022

Background: Symptoms of depression and anxiety are common among cancer patients. Physical activity interventions have been conducted to improve psychological outcomes in cancer patients. Our goal with this scoping review was to synthesize evidence on the association of exercise interventions on depression and anxiety symptom presentation among men diagnosed with a genitourinary cancer.

Methods: We undertook a structured search of PubMed and Embase databases to identify physical activity interventional studies (randomized and non-randomized) and depression or anxiety among male genitourinary cancer patients. Study inclusion criteria included: studies must have been interventional, within a population of male genitourinary cancer patients (prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular), with reported quantitative measures of depression or anxiety, separately for individual cancer sites and males for non-male-specific cancer sites. Using these criteria, records underwent a first-stage title-and-abstract screen followed by a second-stage full-text screen. Records meeting all eligibility criteria were included. Following standardized data extraction, data were synthesized in narrative format. All study procedures were performed by two reviewers, with conflicts resolved by consensus.

Results: The search yielded 1,465 records. Following screening, 22 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the synthesis. Of the outcomes of interest, 21 studies assessed depression (20 prostate and 1 testicular cancer), 16 studies assessed anxiety (15 prostate and 1 testicular cancer), and 1 study assessed depression and anxiety combined (prostate cancer). No trials in kidney or bladder cancer met eligibility criteria. Exercise interventions in included trials ranged from high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to stretching-based practices. The included testicular cancer study found a non-significant between-group decrease in depression (effect = -0.2) and anxiety (effect = -1.6) scores following HIIT intervention. Nearly all studies in prostate cancer found improvements following the exercise intervention, several with statistically significant results. Of note, the results from 2 Qigong exercise interventions reported promising therapeutic benefits, with one study reporting a significant decrease in anxiety from baseline comparing Qigong vs stretching control interventions (p=0.003); results were non-significant for depression (p=0.09).

Conclusion: Available evidence demonstrates suggests a beneficial impact of exercise interventions on reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in men with genitourinary cancer. More research is needed on the role of exercise interventions on psychological condition reporting in patients of kidney, bladder, and rarer genitourinary cancers.

Citation Format: Sydney Grob, Colleen B. McGrath, Lorelei A. Mucci. Association between physical activity interventions after a genitourinary cancer diagnosis and incidences of depression and anxiety: A scoping study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5260.