{"doi":"10.1177/15347354231162584","title":"A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial Comparing Effects of Qigong and Exercise/Nutrition Training on Fatigue and Other Outcomes in Female Cancer Survivors","abstract":"Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a common and burdensome, often long-term side effect of cancer and its treatment. Many non-pharmacological treatments have been investigated as possible CRF therapies, including exercise, nutrition, health/psycho-education, and mind-body therapies. However, studies directly comparing the efficacy of these treatments in randomized controlled trials are lacking. To fill this gap, we conducted a parallel single blind randomized controlled pilot efficacy trial with women with CRF to directly compare the effects of Qigong (a form of mind-body intervention) (n = 11) to an intervention that combined strength and aerobic exercise, plant-based nutrition and health/psycho-education (n = 13) in a per protocol analysis. This design was chosen to determine the comparative efficacy of 2 non-pharmacologic interventions, with different physical demand intensities, in reducing the primary outcome measure of self-reported fatigue (FACIT “Additional Concerns” subscale). Both interventions showed a mean fatigue improvement of more than double the pre-established minimal clinically important difference of 3 (qigong: 7.068 ± 10.30, exercise/nutrition: 8.846 ± 12.001). Mixed effects ANOVA analysis of group × time interactions revealed a significant main effect of time, such that both groups significantly improved fatigue from pre- to post-treatment ( F(1,22) = 11.898, P = .002, generalized eta squared effect size = 0.116) There was no significant difference between fatigue improvement between groups (independent samples t-test: P = .70 ), suggesting a potential equivalence or non-inferiority of interventions, which we could not definitively establish due to our small sample size. This study provides evidence from a small sample of n = 24 women with CRF that qigong improves fatigue similarly to exercise-nutrition courses. Qigong additionally significantly improved secondary measures of mood, emotion regulation, and stress, while exercise/nutrition significantly improved secondary measures of sleep/fatigue. These findings provide preliminary evidence for divergent mechanisms of fatigue improvement across interventions, with qigong providing a gentler and lower-intensity alternative to exercise/nutrition.","journal":"Integrative Cancer Therapies","year":2023,"id":365547,"datarank":0.3914042413281145,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.0995177189698175,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.0995177189698175,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":6,"citers_with_citation_signal":4,"citers_with_endowment":4,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9574,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT03259438"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":790889,"name":"Simona Temereanca","orcid":"0000-0002-4671-5971","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":272742,"name":"Dylan S Daniels","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1040565,"name":"Cooper Penner","orcid":"0000-0002-6260-856X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1121413,"name":"Tariq Cannonier","orcid":"0000-0002-1400-2387","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270558,"name":"Stephanie R. Jones","orcid":"0000-0001-6760-5301","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":533511,"name":"Catherine E. Kerr","orcid":"0000-0002-3823-2507","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1121412,"name":"Chloe S. Zimmerman","orcid":"0000-0003-0532-0903","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":79,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:14:50.885797Z","pmid":"37204076","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}