This is almost non news. What's actually most interesting about it is how it almost wasn't true. Brown et al (2012) did a meta-analysis of 40 studies combining 2929 cancer survivors to examine effect of exercise on depression. From their abstract:
"Exercise training provides a small overall reduction in depressive symptoms among cancer survivors but one that increased in dose-response fashion with weekly volume of aerobic exercise in high quality trials. Depressive symptoms were reduced to the greatest degree among breast cancer survivors, among cancer survivors aged between 47-62 yr, or when exercise sessions were supervised."
This isn't the first time I've seen meta-analysis think things mostly work for breast cancer survivors. Want to know the secret why? Because more trials are done in breast cancer than any other single cancer, therefore in meta-analyses the increased sample size magnifies the effect size.
Article referenced:
PLoS One. 2012;7(1):e30955. Epub 2012 Jan 27.
The Efficacy of Exercise in Reducing Depressive Symptoms among Cancer Survivors: A Meta-Analysis.
Brown JC, Huedo-Medina TB, Pescatello LS, Ryan SM, Pescatello SM, Moker E, Lacroix JM, Ferrer RA, Johnson BT.
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