There is a high incidence of hyperlipidemia, increased body fat, decreased aerobic performance, function and psychological distress in long-term survivors of cancer. This study compares the efficacy of Tai Chi (TC) vs. aerobic exercise (AE) in impacting some of these factors in adult survivors of solid tumors.

We performed an unblinded randomized, repeated measures trial in adult cancer survivors who were free of metastatic disease and had not received chemotherapy for 24 months. Participants were randomized to standard 12 week instructor-led TC program, 12 week supervised AE, or waitlist (WL). WL patients were randomized to TC or AE after 12 weeks and were included in respective group analyses. Clinical variables and serum analytes were compared at baseline (T₀), 6 (T₁) and 13 (T₂) weeks. We measured inflammatory cytokines and growth factors: IL1b, IL6, IL8, IL10, eotaxin, GCSF, INF-g, MCP-1, PDGF-bb, and TNF-a; hormones: cortisol, insulin; and kynurenine using Elisa or Bio-plex assays. Paired group tests were performed along with analysis of unpaired analyte levels between groups for several analytes when repeated measures were not attainable.

Forty-one participants completed all phases of the study. Intervention assignments are presented in Table 1. In (T_2—T₀) cardiovascular comparisons, the only near significant difference that was detected, was a drop in post-exercise systolic blood pressure in the TC group (P=0.06). There was a significant decrease in insulin (P>0.05) and IL10 (P=0.01) and a greater drop in TNFa (P=0.02) in the AE treated group. There was a trend for decrease of PDGF (P=0.06) in the TC group (Table 2).

AE and TC interventions lead to different shifts in serum analyte levels. AE may offer therapeutic benefit in reducing metabolic and inflammatory markers, IL10, TNF-a and insulin. TC does not.