More than fifty women participate in an adapted training program. This initiative, whose methodology is published in the prestigious international journal 'Medicine', is coordinated by the Sport Research Group (CTS-1024) and subsidized by the Patronado Municipal de Deportes de Almería and the Vice-rectorate for Research.
Almeria, 11/11/19. The UAL, through the research group 'Sport Research Group' (CTS-1024), leads an innovative physical exercise program for breast cancer patients. The intervention is being carried out in the facilities of the Patronato Municipal de Deportes, in the Estadio Municipal de los Juegos Mediterráneos. This initiative is being carried out through a research contract signed with the Patronado Municipal de Deportes de Almería, and with the co-funding of the Vice-rectorate for Research and Innovation, through the UAL Transfiere Program.
Among the main side effects of the main treatments for breast cancer -surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy- are loss of muscle mass and strength, as well as increased fatigue, problems that significantly limit the quality of life of these people. This initiative is of great social relevance given that life expectancy after breast cancer has greatly increased and every year there are a greater number of people living with these side effects. From the 'Sport Research Group' (CTS-1024) of the UAL, the aim is to make firm progress in improving the lives of these people. That is why a research study is being carried out to determine to what extent a supervised and carefully planned program of physical training based on muscle strengthening, combined with a minimum of 10,000 steps a day, can increase strength levels, reduce fatigue and improve quality of life after breast cancer has been overcome.
The enormous clinical interest of this work has attracted the attention of a prestigious international medical journal, which has published an article in https://journals.lww.com/md-journal/Fulltext/2019/11010/Effects_of_a_12_week_resistance_and_aerobic.31.aspx. It is 'Medicine', based in Baltimore, USA, whose impact factor is 1.8 and which is located in quartile 2 in the area of General and Internal Medicine. It describes in detail all the methodology that has already been put into practice with notable success, as the main researchers of the project, Dr. Alberto Soriano-Maldonado and Dr. Antonio J. Casimiro Andújar, have pointed out: "We are currently at the zenith of the intervention, in week 7 of the 12 planned weeks, and the feedback from the women who are training is excellent". The principal investigators of the project, together with Dr. Manuel Rodríguez Pérez, responsible for the training program, have expressed the feelings of their group: "We believe that this study will serve as a basis for the implementation of a municipal exercise program for patients with different types of cancer channeled through the UAL".
Although this first phase includes this rigorous scientific research work, from 2020 onwards, actions are planned to shape the implementation, in the short-medium term, of a municipal sports service in Almeria aimed at cancer patients, through the CTS-1024 Group of the University of Almeria. In the initiative there are several collaborating organizations, such as Proyecto Mariposa, Asociación Cáncer de Mama Almería, Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, as well as the Instituto Profesional de Ejercicio y Cáncer (IPEFC). In this line, the main researchers of the study emphasize that a study of this caliber is the result of the multidisciplinary work of many professionals, mainly graduates in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences at the UAL, Family Doctors and Oncologists, but with expectations that this interdisciplinary work will be extended in the near future to psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists or surgeons among other professionals.
