Breathing exercises reduced reported symptom burden during breast cancer chemotherapy
Women receiving breast cancer chemotherapy reported lower overall symptom burden with pranayama breathing plus routine care than with routine care alone. The abstract does not show the absolute size of that difference.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Adding pranayama breathing, a form of breathing exercise, reduced questionnaire scores for overall symptoms, symptom severity and interference with daily activities during the measured chemotherapy period. Dry mouth and numbness or tingling did not show statistically significant differences. The findings concern reported symptoms in this patient group, without evidence here about longer-term effects.
The abstract gives no absolute symptom-score changes, longer follow-up or information about whether participants or assessors knew group allocation.
What researchers found
Symptom questionnaire scores
Compared with routine care alone, scores were lower at chemotherapy start and 7 and 14 days later, including symptom severity and interference with daily activities.
Symptoms and daily activities were assessed
The questionnaire measured both how severe symptoms were and how much they interfered with daily activities. Improvement in these scores describes the participants' symptom experience; the trial did not report cancer-treatment outcomes.
Not every symptom clearly differed
Overall scores favoured the breathing group, but dry mouth and numbness or tingling did not show statistically significant differences. These individual symptom findings remain uncertain and should not be interpreted as proof of identical effects.
The original publication
The effects of Pranayama breathing exercise on symptom burden among women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy: a randomized controlled trial.
Momeni M, Khatooni M, Alizadeh A et al.
BMC Complement Med Ther · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40615849
- Record checked
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